The Rankless Shinobi
by saraki22
Summary: Naruto is adopted by the Hyuuga Clan the nights after the Kyuubi is sealed inside of him.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

It was early in the morning and the Village Council and the Hokage were still debating on what should be done with the prison. The day before yesterday the Kyuubi was poised to attack and then minutes later it fell. The reason for the defeat of the strongest of all the Youkai was the sacrifice made by the strongest of all the humans that went out to face it. This Youkai was not like the others its power was so massive that there was no way to even harm it. So that meant they could only seal it away. And the only place that could hold such a being of raw power was a newborn boy only minutes old. Only a living human with its chakra system still setting could hold the beast and there was only one baby born that day. If there was any consolation the Yondaime had when he took the child it was that he did not have to ask any parent to use their child for this as after this battle both parents would be dead and he would be an orphan.

That did raise an important question however; what to do with the baby/living prison now that the Youkai was sealed away. That was the debate going on at this very moment. The problem was the Council was spilt into thirds; one third wanted to kill the child to kill the Kyuubi, one third wanted to let the child live just because they were afraid that the seal was not set yet and the final third simply wanted the child removed from the village these did not really care how it was done. The final decision would come down to the reinstated Sandaime Hokage. The Hokage knew the final request of from his fellow Hokage but knew just by watching these fools it was not going to happen. The problem was that even though the Council would have to bend to the Hokage's will as he had final say the message they were saying was quite clear. No one wanted the living prison/demon vessel/hero/innocent child.

The arguing factions came to a sudden silence as the door to the Council Chambers opened and the Head of Konoha's oldest and most power Clan entered, the newly appointed Hyuuga Hiashi. "Please forgive the interruption, my wife's pregnancy is not going well with all the stress in the last few days."

"Your apologies are not necessary Hyuuga-sama," the Head of the Arubame Clan said stoically. "It has been stressful for us all."

"Thank you Aburame-sama," Hiashi returned.

"Please have a seat," Sandaime instructed. "We are still discussing what to do with Naruto…"

"What is there to discuss?" the head of one of the now smaller Clans said. "The thing should be killed before the Seal breaks!"

"And if killing the vessel is what breaks the seal while it is still settling then what will you do?" Another Clan Head countered.

"That is why we must banish it from the village and send it to the far reaches of the world," another spoke up. "If it dies and releases the Kyuubi then it won't attack and if it lives and keeps the beast contained it won't be our problem."

It was at this point that Hyuuga Hiashi spoke once again, "I may have a solution to this debate." The other Clan Heads silenced themselves and gave their full attention to him. "I shall adopt him into my Clan."

Before he could continue all the Heads began to shout and protest, "Why would want to take the demon in?"

"Why do you want to let it live?"

"Are you trying to use the it's power as your own?" the last question came from the Uchiha Head. It was no secret that the Uchiha and the Hyuuga were often at odds with each other in village politics.

"Silence!" the Hokage ordered causing the room to fall quite. "Hyuuga-sama perhaps you should explain."

"Yes Hokage-sama," Hiashi obeyed. "I make this recommendation because we do not know what the Seal will do if the boy is allowed to live or if he dies. My Clan can observe the Seal and detect any imbalance in it if it begins to break down. Also if it does my Clan also has a means of quickly killing the vessel before the Kyuubi can escape."

"You mean your Family Curse Seal," the Sandaime interjected his disapproval clearly in his voice. None of the Hokages like the Curse Seal but the Clans had the right to protect their secrets so they could not do anything about it.

"Hhhhmm an interesting idea," Akimichi Clan Head said.

"I agree," the Uchiha Head nodded. This caused everyone to turn to him in disbelief. "The Byakugan is better at seeing Chakra than even the Sharingan. It can give us the most advance warning if the Seal begins to break. And the Curse Seal ensures that we have a fail-safe incase it does begin to break. It will ensure the doubts of whether the Seal is stable and keep other villages from finding him and using the vessel against us."

Hearing the argument agreed upon by the Konoha's two most well know rival Clans the others quickly began to agree. Soon the entire Council was in agreement at the suggestion of the Hyuuga Clan taking Naruto in. Sandaime was clearly against such an action because of what it entitled but because the entire Council was in agreement he could do nothing at this time. With the Village still recovering, his position still tenuous at best, and the anger and fear still running high if he were to oppose this decision there could be a riot and many more people would be killed. "Very well," he finally conceded. "You can take Naruto. However from this day on anyone mentions what truly happened to the Kyuubi shall be punished severely as I am making this an S-Class Village Secret."

"Yes Hokage-sama" the entire Council stood. With the meeting augured Hiashi took Naruto in his arms and left for the Hyuuga compound to begin Uzumaki Naruto's life as a Hyuuga.

Four years later Naruto is standing off to the side as the Branch House and Main House stand facing each other. He is not really part of either House but is part of the Clan so he watches as the meeting takes place. He sees the Main House Heiress, Hinata shyly hiding behind her Father the Head of the Clan as Neji, the Heir to the Branch House waves at her as he stands next to his Father the Leader of the Branch House. As he watches he noticed one major difference between the adults of the Clan. Those of the Branch House that do not have their foreheads cover it was easy to see a mark on them even in the pale moon light. Absently Naruto reached to his own forehead to and rubbed his own mark under his headband. It was the same mark as the ones on the Branch Members.

Thinking about that he remembered the time when he asked his caretaker why he did not have eye's like the rest of the Family. The look from the caretaker sent a massive chill down Naruto's spine. And with a cold hate filled voice his caretaker said he was not part of the Clan and was just a Ward. After that Naruto never asked if he was part of the Clan again. After a few minutes of talking Neji left the side of the Branch House and went with the Main House and the two groups left the area.

Wanting to get out of there Naruto left the Compound and entered the Village proper. No one really cared if he came or went as long as if he was back after nightfall he needed to be quite so as to not disturb anyone. As such Naruto often spent time away from the Compound during the day, though mostly it was in the forest as the Villagers would often look at him with the same cold eyes as his caretaker. This time however there was a celebration in the village and if he kept himself concealed enough he could enjoy watching everyone else have some fun.

After only a three or four glares during the day, which meant it was a good day for Naruto, he decided to stop off at the small ramen shop that allowed him to eat there for some dinner. He knew he would be late getting back to the Compound but he really did not care at this point. By the time he was finished with his meal it was well into the night when Naruto headed back. As he was about to enter the Hyuuga grounds he saw an odd site. It was a man Naruto did not recognize carrying what looked like a bundle a little smaller than him exit one of the building in the Main House section. As the stranger came into the moonlight and he saw that Hinata was the bundle. Knowing that no one would let the Hyuuga Heiress leave with a stranger alone Naruto knew something was wrong. So Naruto did the only thing he could, he screamed, "INTRUDER!" Now Naruto was often a quite child because that was how everyone in the Hyuuga Clan but Naruto did have quite the set of lungs so his yell carried quite the distance alerting several people in the area.

The person carrying Hinata was obviously one of those who heard and turned to see him, "Danm Brat!" He tried to make a run for it but several Hyuuga's poured out and quickly surrounded him forcing him to surrender.

After the intruder was taken into custody Hiashi made his way over to Naruto, who was still off to the side all alone. When he was close to Naruto the blonde lowered his head as he was taught to do. After a moment of waiting Hiashi said "Look up." Naruto obeyed and looked at Hiashi in the eyes. When he did Hiashi let his stone like face soften a little, "You did well." He then turned with his normal visage in place and walked back to give a report of the account to the Anbu that had arrived. As he left Naruto let off a large smile after hearing praise from a man that almost never gave it even to his own daughter.

The next morning the excitement of last night spread and Naruto was out in the in the courtyard still smiling from last night. It was there he heard a soft voice from behind him call his name, "N…Naruto."

Turning around Naruto came face to face with the girl that was nearly kidnapped last night, "Hinata-sama," Naruto addressed with a bow. "Are you alright?"

"Y...yes," Hinata answered. "T…thank…y…you Naruto-k…kun." She gave him a small smile and then quickly went back inside. The smile that Naruto had earlier was even wider than before and it was that day he vowed to grow strong in order to protect everyone so he can feel just like he does at that moment.

Two years later Naruto is practicing his Taijutsu on one of the training fields not far from the Hyuuga Compound. Ever since that day two years ago he has been spending much of his time training in order to become stronger. It was at this time that three people came upon the carrier of the Kyuubi in order to tell him the results they knew he would not want to hear. "Naruto," Hiashi's stoic voice addressed.

Naruto stopped mid kick and turned to the voice and saw three men that he had come to admire over the last two years, Hyuuga Hiashi, his brother Hyuuga Hizashi and the Sandaime Hokage. After the attempted kidnapping the two brothers had become closer to their ward because it was because of him that Hinata was safe and allowing them both to train Neji to become a better protector for his cousin. This allowed them to become closer once again become true brothers they missed being. The Hokage simply liked and treated Naruto well for as long as he has know him so Naruto always liked him. "Hokage-sama, Hiashi-sama Hizashi-sama, hello," Naruto greeted. He knew why they were here, "Are going to let me enter the Academy?"

All three men's eyes softened for a moment, "No, Naruto. The Elders are not allowing you to enter the Academy," Hiashi informed him.

"Oh," Naruto lowered his head in sadness. Earlier this month Naruto had learned that Hinata would be attending the Ninja Academy soon and he requested the same. Because he was the Ward of the Hyuuga Clan the Elders of the Clan had final say in whether or not he could go. The problem was the Elders were rather open in their hatred for the six year old so their denial to give him permission to enter the Academy was not unexpected to him. "Thank you for asking on my behalf," Naruto said. The three men came because they were the closest things Naruto had to a real family.

"It is getting late Naruto we should head back," Hizashi said. He had taken Naruto into his home after the attempted kidnapping and had become Naruto's caretaker and made Naruto Neji's sparring partner, "It's time for practice." Naruto nodded wordlessly and followed his caretaker back to the Hyuuga Compound.

After the two left the Hiashi spoke to the Hokage, "Without entering the Academy even you cannot allow him to become a shinobi. He will never be able to reach his true potential then." Hiashi had seen Naruto's determination and inner strength first hand as he watched Naruto spar Neji and train on his own over the past two years. And truly wanted to see Naruto grow into a strong shinobi.

"He may not be able to become a shinobi," Sandaime responded, "But that does not keep him from growing stronger."

"What do you plan to do Hokage-sama?" Hiashi asked.

"I can give him access to my Library," the Hokage answered with a smile.

"Are you going to take him on as an apprentice?" Hiashi asked disbelieving. The Personal Library of the Hokage that became none as the Professor for him knowledge of some many jutsus was nearly Legendary in status. To be allowed access even for a day is considered a great honor.

"No," Hokage admitted. "My duties like yours keep me from doing anything like that. But I can help him by giving him some pointers here and there. Don't you agree?"

"Yes Hokage-sama," Hiashi nodded, "I shall inform Naruto after his training."

Four years later Naruto is seen in a large room with several scroll lying around. He brings his hand up into a seal and says, "Henge!" Unfortunately after the smoke clears the ten-year-old Naruto still looks just like himself. Yielding to his frustration at yet another failure Naruto punches the wall behind him.

"I would appreciate it if you did not damage my Library Naruto," Sandaime says with a chuckle from the entrance.

"Sorry Hokage-sama," Naruto apologizes. "But I'm just getting rather angry at my performance or lack there of as the case may be." Sighing he walks over to the Hokage, "I just don't understand I can fell my chakra flow through my body I just can't seem to do the jutsus. It's not like that Rock Lee guy, from what I've heard his chakra just doesn't flow at all. I just don't get what's wrong with mine."

"I have been thinking about that Naruto," the Hokage replied. "I think the Caged Bird Seal and your other Seal interfere with your ability to mold the chakra correctly to perform jutsus." Naruto looked at the Hokage for a minute trying to understand what he meant. Over the years the Hyuuga's and Hokage had to tell Naruto about the Seal on his stomach because Neji and Hinata had commented on seeing it on him a few times. They did not tell Naruto what the Seal was for only that it was placed on him the day he was born. They also knew it was only a matter of time for Naruto to ask why it was put on him and then they would be forced to tell him his greatest secret. Though they started to suspect that Naruto might already have an idea what the Seal was for.

"Makes sense I guess," Naruto said. "The Caged Bird Seal can mess with mental focus sometimes and the Seal on my stomach messes with my control as far as I can tell. The two combined probably would do something like that."

Sarutobi looks at Naruto nodding in approval at the analysis he performed. Naruto was not a genius but was still quite intelligent. And with the pointers he has given Naruto over the years, his studying and sparing/competing with Neji, a trued genius, Naruto is able to understand a great deal about what he is told. "We'll have to see what we can do to either fix that or find some way of getting around it."

"Well if we can't fix it I think I know a way to get around it," Naruto replied.

"And how is that?" the Hokage asked already having an idea himself.

"I can still gather my chakra to different parts of my body, the tree and water walking are proof of that and my Taijutsu is unaffected," Naruto said.

"What are you suggesting Naruto?" the Hokage asked already knowing where he was going.

"I read about a Taijutsu style called Impact," Naruto said leaving the room.

Two years later Naruto is seen standing outside the Ninja Academy. Not far away from him are several adults also standing around. They are talking about him in hushed voices saying they were glad he was never allowed to enter the Academy and thus allowed to become a ninja. Naruto is not paying any attention to them, instead he is waiting for the doors to open and let those who passed the Graduation Exam out. Not more than five minutes later the doors opened and a little over two dozen boys and girls about Naruto's age come out of the building all wearing the symbol of adulthood in a Hidden Village, the Hitai Ate (Forehead Protector). Naruto is looking for one particular person, a girl that he has known all his life and had been close friends with for over half, Hinata. After a few seconds he spots her and waves her over. Seeing her approach and wearing a Hitai Ate he asks, "How did you do?"

"I achieved third placing," Hinata answered. "Uchiha Sasuke achieved Rookie of the Year and some other girl name Sakura got second."

Naruto nodded, "Uchiha Sasuke has a lot to live up to some I doubt anyone is surprised he got Rookie of the Year. The question is why did you not get second standing?"

"The girl beat me out in the written test," Hinata admitted. "She beat everyone in that area."

Again Naruto nods in understanding and the two start to walk off, "Hiashi-sama was unable come because of a meeting with the Hokage and Hizashi-sama is out on missions and so is Neji. Hanabi went with Hiashi-sama."

This time it was Hinata that nodded in understanding knowing how busy her family gets, "When will you be starting Missions?"

"The Hokage says I'm old enough and good enough to be a Gennin Equivalent so he will be giving me Missions starting next week just like you and the other Graduates."

"I just wish you were apart of the Graduating Class," Hinata said.

"There are a lot of shinobi out there that don't have official ranks," Naruto responded. "If I have to be a Rankles Ninja then I don't care. It won't stop me from accomplishing my dreams of being the strongest in the Konoha."

"You mean the Hokage," Hinata prodded.

"If not that then even stronger than the Hokages," Naruto said smiling.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by a concept given to me by Grandmaster Pie.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

It was the day after the Academy Graduation and the everywhere Konoha was getting ready for the day. At the Hyuuga compound Naruto approached the Dinning Room at the Clan Head's residence. A couple of years ago Hiashi had invited his brother and his brother's family to dine with his family, it was just one more step in Hiashi had been using to mend the rift between the two Houses. Naruto being Hizashi's ward was also invited to join them. It was known among just about every member of the Hyuuga Clan that the twins held the Kyuubi Container in high regard for what he did when he was a young child. As such he was treated with respect with in the Hyuuga Compound, except for the Elders that is, outside the Compound was a different matter however as most of the Village were like the Elders of the Hyuuga Clan and still thought of him as the demon that caused so much destruction and loss. As he entered he took note that Hinata and Hanabi were already there and waiting for everyone else to show up, "Good morning Hinata, Hanabi," Naruto greeted.

"Hello Naruto-kun," Hinata responded. "Outosan (Father) and Hizashi-ojisan (uncle) should be joining us soon. Outosan is watching Hizashi-ojisan spar with Neji-niisan (brother) to see how he has improved in the last few weeks."

Naruto nodded as he took his place near the end of the table. As soon as he was seated the three people that were absent until now came into the room and took their places. Once they were settled the servants entered and placed food on the table and the meal began. The meal was ate in silence and when finished was carried off by the servants. With the table cleared conversation began with Hiashi stating, "Your progress is coming along quite well Neji. A bit more control and you should be ready to learn Kaiten."

"I look forward to it Hiashi-sama," Neji replied.

"Who do you think will be on your team Onesan?" Hanabi asked.

"I am not sure," Hinata answered honestly. "The teams are balanced so it could be just about anyone I suppose. Well expect for Uchiha Sasuke, we were too close in over all score so I doubt we will be on the same team."

"A fare assessment," Hizashi commented. "Even if your scores were further off they would not put you on the same team."

"Why do you say that Hizashi-sama?" Naruto asked.

"Konoha has never put the it's most powerful Bloodlines on the same Gennin team," Hiashi answered. "Having both the Byakugan and the Sharingan on the same Gennin team would make the team unbalanced compared to the others."

There was a knock at the door and one of the servants from earlier entered the room, "Hiashi-sama, it is almost time for Hinata-sama to leave for the Academy."

Hiashi nodded and the servant left. "You should go and prepare yourself Hinata," Hiashi said to his eldest daughter.

"Yes Outosan," Hinata stood and left the room.

"And you should also leave as well Naruto," Hiashi suggested. "The Hokage will wish to speak with you on how you will be doing Missions." Naruto nodded and left the room as well.

An hour later Hinata walked calmly into the classroom and noticed that the only other person that had arrived was Uchiha Sasuke. Not bothering to greet the Rookie of the Year, because she knew he would ignore her just like everyone else, Hinata took her seat to wait for the rest of the Graduates to show up. Not more than fifteen minutes later most of the class had arrived with every other girl greeting Sasuke, which he ignored. The last person to arrive was Nara Shikamaru. No one was surprised at this simply because he was the laziest person in the Village. Umino Iruka arrived, who arrived just before Shikamaru, called for everyone to quite down and listen to the announcement of the teams. Quickly everyone in the room directed their attention to the Chunin as he began, "Today you will all be divided among teams of three. We have set the teams up so that no one team will be more powerful than another," at this Iruka was interrupted by various groans and complaints about how unfair it was. Hinata was one of only two people, the other being Sasuke, that did not make a comment because she had been informed of balancing the Gennin Teams long ago. "Quite!" Iruka shouted over the complaints silencing the class, "As I was saying you will be on teams that are balanced in strength. Now pay attention as I call out your teams."

For the next few minutes there was various groans and a few cheers as the names were called. The groans were mostly by various girls, as they were not put on the same team as Sasuke. "Team Seven; Uchiha Sasuke," every girl in the room became quite, either in anticipation or to hear which person they would focus their jealousy on. "Haruna Sakura," all the girls stared banefully as Sakura cheered at her apparent victory, "And Nara Shikamaru." Shikamaru did not make any kind of comment simply because it would require too much effort to say anything.

Iruka moved on before any more interruptions made themselves known. "Team Eight; Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji and Arubame Shino." The only reaction out of the three called was Ino shuddering at the thought of Shino's bugs. "There is still a Gennin Team with the designation Team Nine so the next team will be Team 10; Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Gin Noa." After the names were called Iruka closed his notebook and then gave out his final instructions, "Report back here after lunch to meet your Jounin Sensei. Until then you are free to do as you wish."

Lunch was rather uneventful for Hinata. She already knew her teammates rather well from her observations she made through the years, even though they never really knew. She had become quite adept at watching people with her Byakugan. She had begun to watch people around the classroom as a way to develop her blood limit when she was younger. At this point she still did not have the range as her elder cousin but she was getting close to 350 degrees at this point.

Out of curiosity of what everyone was doing Hinata activated her eyes and began to search the others around her. The first person she spotted was Sasuke who was avoiding every girl because every girl, except her, was searching for him to give him a lunch. The next two people she saw were Ino and Sakura who had at this point started to argue over who would feed Sasuke first. After that she scanned away from the building and saw her new teammate Kiba apparently yelling at Shino because Shino was collecting some bugs off the puppy. Finally after a few more searches she found her last teammate Noa working hard on his Kawarimi, his known worst skill. Hinata knew that Noa was not the most skilled of the recent graduates but he worked hard nonetheless. That aspect somewhat reminded her of Neji's teammate Rock Lee, so she gave Noa the benefit of the doubt that he might be a good shinobi in the future.

Thinking about people doing hard training made her think of Naruto. With the two seals on his body he had to train exceptionally hard to control his chakra. In her opinion that was why he picked Impact to begin with. The style was developed by a Konoha shinobi during the Nidaime's time as Hokage. It was a combination of Jyuken (Gentle Fist) and Gouken (Iron Fist), using charka to deal internal and external damage. Even though the internal damage could not penetrate nearly as far or had the accuracy of Jyuken and did not have the sheer speed of Gouken it was still a devastating fighting style. She still remembered the day when Naruto was able to perform the first chakra enhanced strike…

Hinata, looking about nine years old, was watching Naruto stand before a stack of bricks with Hizashi and her cousin Neji looking on. Naruto was in deep concentration focusing his charka into his fist. When he felt he had enough Naruto struck the top the brick shattering and continued through too the third one shattering it along with the second. It was within the blink of an eye that the fifth brick shattered leaving the forth only cracked in the center. This was the base principle of Impact style, for when it was used on a person or free standing object would produce enough force to send them flying several meters and if the strike missed and hit wall or the ground it would produce a small focused impact crater, thus giving the style the name.

Naruto with a broad smile on his face looked towards the Head of the Branch House, "I did it!" he proclaimed proudly. "It happened just like the scroll said it would."

"Very impressive Naruto," Hizashi said. "But that is merely the first step in learning your Taijutsu style. Now you must learn to do it when fighting and with your other hand and feet as well." Hizashi then stood and motioned for Naruto to follow, "Now you must get cleaned up lunch will start soon." Naruto nodded and followed him and Neji into the Branch House Section of the Compound.

After the two left, Hinata gave a small smile at Naruto's accomplishments, "Good job Naruto-kun."

Hinata brought herself out of her memories, as it was time for the new Gennin to meet their Jounin-senseis. When she arrived at the classroom there were already two or three people there. After taking her seat she waited for everyone to show up including the Jounins. A couple of minutes passed and a woman with long dark hair and red eyes entered the class room, "I am Yuuhi Kurenai and I am here to pick up Team 10. Please follow me." Hinata, Kiba and Noa then stood and followed the female Jounin out of the classroom.

The newly formed team 10 exited the Academy building and made a short walk across the street to a small restaurant. When they arrived Kurenai was the first to speak, "Ok first we'll get to know each other a little better. I'll start first, my name is Yuuhi Kurenai and I'm a new Jounin that specializes in Genjutsu. I like to read and the forests around the village. I hate perverted shinobi that are always late and my dream is to get Icha Icha Paradise banned from the world." The three Gennins exchanged an odd look wondering what Icha Icha Paradise was. "Now lets here about all of you. The Hyuuga can go first."

"I am Hyuuga Hinata, I specialize in my family Taijutsu style Jyuken. I like my immediate family and closest friend Naruto. I hate the people who don't give others a chance to prove themselves and certain seals. My dream is lead my Clan with honor and compassion"

"So she's friends with the Container," Kurenai thought, "I wonder if she knows?" "Ok the Inuzuka can go next."

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba," Kiba replied brashly. "I like dogs especially Akamaru here," Kiba indicated to the puppy on his head. "What I hate are bugs that get in Akamaru's fur and people that can control them. My dream is to beat every show off there is!"

"Well he's certainly passionate," Kurenai thought. "And finally Gin."

"I'm Gin Noa," Noa began. "I'm the first person in my family to be a shinobi. I like working at my parents' bookstore. But I dislike it when a certain kiss up sunglasses wearing Jounin comes in to the store and says selling adult books is wrong and then comes back in half an hour in a bad disguise to buy an entire stack of them. My dream is to make my family proud by being the first Shinobi of our family."

"Must be talking about Ebisu," Kurenai thought. "Well now that we've introduced ourselves I should tell you that tomorrow we're going to have an exercise to see which of you will be true Gennin."

"What?" Noa and Kiba yelled, Kiba more than Noa. Hinata knew this was coming after hearing a bit about it from Neji a year previously.

"Calm down and I'll explain," Kurenai said. Kiba and Noa complied, "The Gennin Exam was to see which of you would have the skill necessary to make it as a shinobi. What we're going to do tomorrow is the real test. Think of it as a practical exam. Now I'll warn you a head of time. The Exam has a sixty-six percent failure rate so of the twenty-seven that Graduated from the Academy only nine will become true Gennins. Those that don't pass will be sent back to the Academy. Meat me at training field 14 tomorrow at eight o'clock and bring everything you think you'll need." Kurenai then disappeared leaving the Gennin alone.

"This sucks," Kiba said. "Why the hell do we have to take another test?"

"Because Konoha only wants the best," Hinata answered. "And the best way to see which are the best is to have a practical exam to test the skills of the Graduates."

"I'm not too sure I'm going to do so well," Noa admitted. "I mean I really didn't do all that well at the Academy."

"It is not a matter of what you know, it's a matter of how well you perform," Hinata replied.

"You seem to know a lot about this Hinata," Kiba stated. "How do you know so much?"

"My elder cousin passed the Exam last year," Hinata answered.

"You got any pointers for us for tomorrow?" Noa asked.

"Not really," Hinata answered. "Each exam is up to the Jounin."

"So we should expect anything then," Noa concluded and Hinata nodded in confirmation.

"Well I'm going home to get ready for tomorrow I'll see you later," Kiba said waving while he left the restaurant.

While Hinata was meeting with her team and new Jounin-sensei Naruto reported to the Hokage's Office. When he arrived Naruto was told to wait as the Hokage was in an important meeting at the moment. Naruto had to wait almost an hour and then finally saw about a half dozen Jounins leaving the Hokage's Office. "Their probably the Jounin Sensei's. Must be going to the Academy," Naruto thought. "I wonder which one Hinata will get."

The Hokage followed the Jounins out and saw Naruto waiting by the door. After looking as if he was trying to find someone the Hokage gestured for Naruto to come inside. The two took a seat and got down to business, "Tomorrow after the teams are officially selected and the Rookie Nine are decided I'll start giving you missions. You won't have an official ranking as a shinobi but I'll list you as a resident Mercenary. To start off you probably will not get too many missions and they probably won't pay all that much. But I can assign you to assist some of the Gennin Teams in their missions and that should help you get more and better missions later."

"A lot of the citizens won't like me going on missions with the Gennin team Hokage-sama," Naruto stated. "All they have to do is refuse to allow me on their property and I won't be able to participate and thus not get paid."

"True," Sandaime agreed. "But you won't be doing those missions. You'll be helping those Gennin teams that take missions outside the village, though still relatively close. Those missions, even at D-Rank often need a little more help because of the distance needed to travel. After you complete a few D-Rank Missions so some of the Gennins can get to know your abilities I'll start assigning you to some C-Rank with some of the veteran Gennins."

"Sounds like a pretty good idea," Naruto said. "Though when you start giving me more than D-Rank missions you think you can start me off with Neji's team?"

"I don't suppose there would be a problem with that," the Hokage answered. "Gai is familiar with you as he's seen you spar with Neji in the past. Why do you request his team? Is it because your friends with Neji?"

"Well that is part of it," Naruto admitted. "Neji has been like a brother to me for years but that's not my only reason. Neji is currently ranked as the strongest Gennin in Konoha. If I do well on missions with him it will give me credit for people hiring me on my own. I know that a lot of people that request C-Rank missions ask for his team because of him and his teammates' strengths."

"I see you've put some thought into this," Sarutobi said. "Very well after you've completed some D-Rank missions and I feel you're ready for the responsibility of C-Rank I'll make your first mission with Gai's team." The old shinobi master stood up and went around his desk to Naruto, "It's good to see that you've developed a sharp mind as well as a strong body."

"With you, Hiashi-sama and Hizashi-sama as tutors how can I not have one?" Naruto asked with a smile.

The Hokage gave Naruto a hearty laugh in response. "I suppose so," he said. "Now you should head back I've still got some work to do."

"Ok Hokage-sama," Naruto said. "I'll see you tomorrow for any mission you might have for me." Naruto made his way to the door and just before he reached it opened and a Jounin wearing a facemask and his Hitai Ate coving one eye entered reading an orange book.

"Yo," the Jounin waved. "So which team am I getting this year?"

"Late as usual Kakashi," the Hokage stated flatly. Naruto seeing that this had nothing to do with him left the room. Just before the doors closed he heard, "You'll be in charge of Uchiha Sasuke, Haru…"

"So he's taking going to be teaching Uchiha," Naruto thought. "That must mean he's Copy Cat Kakashi that Hiashi-sama and Hizashi told me about. Guess it makes sense really, he is the only one that can teach him to use the Sharingan." Naruto then glanced at the clock, "Hhmmm, Hinata should have finished meeting with her team by now. Think I'll head back to the Compound then go get something to eat at Ichiruka later."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

It was early morning the next day when Hinata arrived at training field 14. Once there she activated hey Byakugan to survey the area. She got into this habit of scouting unfamiliar areas from lectures from Iruka about knowing what kind of terrain you were on. What she noticed first was that the area was close to a large pit that had several poles of various heights and thickness standing inside the pit. This training area was obviously used for balance control, "I wonder what kind of test we'll have?" Hinata questioned softly.

A few minutes after Hinata finished surveying the area Kiba arrived with Akamaru trotting behind him. "Hey Hinata!" Kiba loudly greeted, "Anyone else here yet?"

"Not yet," Hinata answered.

"Well the others shouldn't be…" Kiba cut himself off when Akamaru barked at him. "Akamaru says Noa is coming from the south." Hinata and Kiba turned to the south and sure enough their third team member approached their location.

As soon as Noa arrived Kurenai appeared in puff of smoke. "Good you're all here on time," she said with a smile. "I hate people who are late." After a short pause Kurenai began to explain the test. "My test will be a retrieval mission. Your job is to find one of two scrolls I've placed somewhere in this area. You have an hour to accomplish the mission other wise you fail. You begin as soon as I leave." With out further word Kurenai disappeared in a puff of smoke.

As soon as Kurenai left Kiba spoke. "Come on Akamaru let's find that scroll." The white puppy barked and the two started to run off.

Before the Nin-dog and his master got more than a few steps away Noa shouted out to him, "Kiba wait!"

"What? Why?" Kiba objected. "Akamaru and I can find that scroll easy. This test will easy. Just sit back and let us handle it."

"I think that's why Noa stopped you Kiba," Hinata replied. "You're right, this test is easy. Too easy in fact, with your nose and my eyes we can search this area in a matter of seconds and get the scroll with in a couple of minutes." She paused and let the information sink in. "There has to be more to it then that."

"This is a retrieval mission right?" Noa joined in. "So we can expect some kind of traps or something to keep us from the scroll."

"So what kind of traps should we expect?" Kiba asked. Now that he was following along he could easily see his teammates' reason why they stopped him. His mother always put out some kind of traps around their property to keep wild predators away from the food storages. It was a common practice for hunters to do such things. "Can't believe I didn't think of that. If Okasan finds out she'll feed me to the dogs," Kiba silently chided himself.

"Well what do we know for certain about Kurenai-sensei?" Noa asked. "Like her strengths and weaknesses, that kind of thing."

"She said she specialized in Genjutsus," Hinata answered.

"So some of the traps should be Genjutsu based," Kiba stated.

"I'm pretty good at Genjutsu," Noa said. "It was my best subject at the Academy. So I can tell you that a good field Genjutsu needs to be constantly maintained by the user. So that means Kurenai-sensei is close by."

"Akamaru find Kurenai-sensei," Kiba ordered his partner. The puppy complied and started to sniff around. After a few minutes the puppy barked back at his master. "Akamaru said she's over by the pit. After that he kind felt a little dizzy."

"Byakugan" Hinata whispered focusing her gaze on the pit. "There's a lot of chakra around the pit. It has a lot of layers and crisscrossing sections. It looks like a Genjutsu, a very strong one at that."

"Ok so we know where the target is and what to expect," Kiba said. "So how do we retrieve it?"

"Like I said I'm pretty good at Genjutsus so I think I should be the one to get the scroll," Noa volunteered. "But I'm not sure if I can navigate the Genjutsu if it's as strong as Hinata described."

"Genjutsu needs a lot of focus to maintain," Hinata added. "She's a Jounin so she can keep her focus well. But even then if she is distracted the Genjutsu will be weakened."

"So we need to distract her," Noa concluded. "But how?"

"We attack her," Hinata said. "Inazuka Taijutsu is pretty strong and Jyuuken is even stronger. Kiba and I team up and while you get the scroll. She'll definitely be distracted by us."

"Sounds good to me," Noa answered.

"Lets show Kurenai-sensei what we're made of!" Kiba said loudly.

Near the pit Kurenai was waiting for her new team to come. She had set up one of her mid level Genjutsus in order to give them a good test. One of her mid level Genjutsus were in the upper Chunin Level Genjutsus so it should give a challenge even to the Byakugan. She had also set up a small listening devise just before she left in order to eavesdrop on any kind of plan her students came up with. As she listened to the plan she was rather impressed. "Good analysis on their part, and pretty good planning. Attacking me will weaken my jutsu. And most important they are working together using their strong points. Kiba used Akamaru to pinpoint my location and Hinata used her Byakugan to judge the strength of my Genjutsu trap. Noa doesn't really have any special skills but is using what he knows to his greatest advantage. They are definitely a good combination. They just passed in my opinion."

Further thoughts were ended when Kiba's voice shouted from a few meters away, "Tsugga!" A horizontal twister came fast at Kurenai forcing her to jump out of the way. When she did that she dodged again as Hinata came at her from her right with an open palm strike.

Soon the two Gennin were advancing on the Jounin trying to distract her as much as possible. Knowing what Jyuuken could do Kurenai was avoiding Hinata the most by keeping as much distance between her and the Hyuuga Heir as possible. She often would keep Kiba in between them messing up the tag team assault, "Their still inexperienced fighting together. Give them a couple of months they could actually be landing some blows on me."

"Hinata," Kiba whispered, "How's Noa doing? Is he there yet?"

Hinata paused for a moment before answering, "He's almost there. But the Genjutsu is at its strongest where he is currently. We have to distract her more."

"Don't worry," Kiba said with a smile. "I've got it covered. Or should I say Akamaru has it covered."

Kurenai used the pause in the tandem assault to place more distance between herself and the two Gennin. As soon as she landed she felt something begin to bite her ankle. "What the?" Kurenai was caught completely off guard as Akamaru came up and bit down on her ankle forcing her to almost drop her Genjutsu completely.

"I got it!" Noa's shout came from the far side of the pit announcing the test was completed.

After Noa joined his teammates and instructor, Kurenai talked to her team. "Well congratulations you all pass." Hinata and Noa smiled while Kiba shouted in joy, "You completed the test wonderfully."

"You mean the retrieval?" Noa asked.

"No," Kurenai admitted. "The retrieval mission was not the true purpose of the test." Before the Gennin could question what she meant Kurenai continued. "Working as a team is the most important aspect of being a Konoha shinobi. Even if you ultimately failed in retrieving the scroll you would have still passed because you worked together. The real test given by the Jounin-senseis is to see who is willing to cooperate with others. Usually a Gennin will try and go off alone and thus fails both in the mission and the test. Like you almost did Kiba," Kiba looked a bit embarrassed at that as Kurenai continued on. "My Genjutsu was too strong for any one or even two Gennin to over come, only all three of you working together could over come it. You, working as one team is why you passed not the success of the mission."

"Thus explains the sixty-six failure rate," Hinata spoke up. "Either we all pass or none of us do. No one person is more important on a team."

"Correct Hinata," Kurenai nodded. "To ensure success for our village we must all work together." She saw comprehension on Kiba and Noa's faces and decided no further explanation was needed. "Well that's it for today, meet at the Administration building tomorrow and we'll start missions and training." After that the four walked away from the training field with joyous expressions on their faces.

Later in the evening Naruto was treating Hinata and Hanabi to dinner at Ichiruka Ramen to celebrate Hinata passing the Gennin Test. They were the only ones there because Neji and Hizashi were on missions outside the village and Hiashi had a meeting with some other Clan Leaders. "Do you hear who else passed their test?" Naruto asked.

"I heard it was Team 8 and Team 7 that passed," Hinata answered. "Team 8 passed fairly easily though Ino-san still complained about Shino-san's bugs and Chouji-san's chips. I also heard that Team 7 barely passed."

"From what I heard it was Shikamaru that figured out Kakashi's test and allowed his team to pass," Naruto said.

"Naruto will you be starting missions tomorrow?" Hanabi asked.

"Yeah," Naruto answered. "I probably won't get too many of them for a while though." It was left unsaid why, all three knew Naruto was not liked much. Though for Hanabi's part she could never fathom why. For as long as she could remember Naruto had never done anything to warrant their hate.

"What kind of missions will you be doing Onesan?" Hanabi asked again.

"Like all starting Gennin my team and I will be doing D-Rank Missions," Hinata answered.

"That means walking dogs, finding cats, cleaning homes and doing grocery shopping," Naruto added. "Neji's teammate Tenten still complains about that cat Tora." The three laughed a bit at a shared memory where Neji came home one day with Tenten while she ranted on about if that cat ever escaped again she would gut it with kunai and stuff it. The next day there was a report about Neji's team never chasing Tora ever again because Tenten almost impaled it with a kunai. The bright side of that was her aim became the best among the village Gennins just in case she got another chance.

"Why do they even have missions like that?" Hanabi asked. "It's not like their real shinobi missions, more like the chores Outosan makes me do."

"Hokage-sama told me that it was to help the Gennins get to know each other better and to help the shinobi that are out on higher ranked missions with their day to day stuff," Naruto answered. "Last thing a Jounin needs is to worry about their laundry on an A-Rank Mission." Hanabi accepted the answer and went back to her ramen. The rest of the meal was eaten in silence and soon they returned to the Hyuuga Compound.

A few days Naruto met with Neji at the Hyuuga Training Grounds for the usual sparring match. Neji had the a few days off because of his last mission and Naruto had some time before he went to see if he had any missions himself. The area was littered with small craters that was rather typical of their sparring matches because of Neji often dodging Naruto's strikes.

As they stood in their respective stances, Neji with the first two fingers of each hand pointing at Naruto and Naruto with his front hand open and the back hand closed, Naruto asked, "So what was you last mission like?"

"Long and tiring," Neji answered. "One of Gai-sensei's old friends was in the town we were staying at and he had to introduce Lee to him. Gai-sensei's friend made the mistake of giving Lee a sip of Sake."

Naruto dropped his stance, "Are you sure you want to be sparring? Last time Lee had anything with alcohol you couldn't move for a week." Neji's smirk when Naruto dropped his stance clued him into that Neji had just tricked him.

Neji dashed forward and delivered an open palm strike to Naruto's chest causing his friend to slide backwards. To an observer an odd occurrence would have happened because there were no lines that indicated a drag of Naruto's feet. To Neji however this was a common occurrence. Naruto had developed a chakra exercise that was opposite of the tree climbing exercise. Instead of making him stick to a surface the exercise made Naruto slide across it. Naruto first invented the technique when he was ten and took several months to master it. The result was it made Naruto very quick and hard to hit with long range attacks and lessoned the damage from strong Taijutsu blows as he moved with the direction of the strike. Neji himself also master the principle but as it was counter to Jyuuken he never used it.

Naruto slid to a stop and once he was done moving he slid across the ground like an ice skater. He quickly entered Neji's defense and performed one of Impact Style's techniques, "Nagareboshi Genko! (Meteor Blow)." It was a double punch to the upper chest and middle stomach that would have easily knocked the wind out of Neji if not knock him out, that is expect Neji performed a technique Naruto was not counting on.

"Kaiten!" Neji spun just as the double punch was about to hit him thus countering the move and sending Naruto bouncing off the spinning chakra.

Shaking his head as he stood Naruto commented, "Didn't know he actually learned it yet."

Neji calmly walked over to his long time sparring partner to help him up, "That was the first time I performed it properly." Naruto accepted Neji's outstretched hand and the Hyuuga prodigy pulled the blonde up. "We should stop now, we will both be doing missions tomorrow."

"You mean you'll be doing missions," Naruto said. "I'll be making deliveries to hermits outside of the village. Never knew just how boring D-Rank Missions really were."

Neji gave a small smirk, "At least you don't have to go after that cat Tora. I over heard Gai-sensei telling Lee that Kakashi's Team had that duty now."

"I actually feel sorry for them," Naruto chuckled a little. "But you are correct. We should stop it is getting late." To emphasize Naruto's point a servant came out to the training area to inform the boys that dinner was prepared and everyone was waiting for them. They acknowledged the servant and went inside to clean up.

For the next three weeks a routine would establish for Naruto and Hinata. Naruto would get a mission just outside of Konoha's walls often times with a Gennin Team every three or four days. Hinata would also receive missions, with her team, and then train with them in the after noon. During this time both would easily agree they had misjudged Neji when he came back from such missions claiming them to be a waist of time a year ago. During this time Naruto would accept any mission where a Jounin-sensei requested additional help for one reason or another. That is except Team 7, Kakashi had requested aide for one mission to give his team experience as a four-member team. It was during that time when Naruto actually met Uchiha Sasuke. From the moment they met Naruto and Sasuke were at odds, the two just seemed to rub each other the wrong way. Add to the fact that Haruna Sakura practically worshipped the ground Sasuke walked on, and would screech at Naruto for talking in negative terms. Sakura being a fan girl was bad enough but the fact she did very little in contribution to the mission, even if it was D-Rank, made Naruto to never want to be teamed up with them again. He actually believed that Shikamaru, known to lazier than anyone else alive, was being held back by the other two.

After the three weeks were ended Naruto was called into the Hokage's office. When he arrived Naruto was somewhat surprised to see Kurenai there waiting for him along with the Hokage. "Thank you for coming Naruto," Sandaime said.

"No problem at all Hokage-sama," Naruto replied. "Hello to you Kurenai-san."

"Hello Naruto," Kurenai returned the greeting. The two were on pretty good terms after the two or three missions Naruto helped her and her team with over the last month. Kurenai reached a decision that Naruto was good kid that did not deserve the treatment he received by most of the village. Naruto intern respected the Genjutsu Specialist as a teacher and Jounin as everyone on her team showed some rather impressive improvement in just a month's time.

"I have called you here because Kurenai has requested a C-Rank Mission for her team," the Hokage informed him. "A small bandit group has set up operations about along the road from Konoha to Tea Country. I have decided to give Kurenai's team the mission to chase them out."

"I requested you come along because you have traveled in that area before and know the terrain," Kurenai joined in. "I asked you be a my team's guide through the area as well as help up drive the bandits out. Will you accept the Mission?"

"A chance for a C-Rank Mission?" Naruto asked. "Of course I'll accept the mission!" The old leader of the village and Jounin smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm, "Besides if there's bandits in that area Old Raito might be in trouble." Raito was one of the hermits that Naruto delivered supplies to in the past month. The old man lived alone in a small forest and was a bit of a grump to most people but he and Naruto got along rather well for some reason neither could tell anyone why. So after hearing that bandits were near Raito's home Naruto was obviously worried.

"Good," Kurenai said. "Meet at the South Gate at 11:00 tomorrow morning and don't be late."

"I'll see you then," Naruto said. "And thanks for this." Kurenai gave the blonde a small nod and smile as he left the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The beginning of the mission for Team 10 and Naruto was rather simple. They gathered at the appointed time and made their way to the designated area. Along the way the young Gennins and Naruto talked in a friendly manner. The four became comrades easily enough as Kurenai was one of the Jounin that asked for Naruto the most. The group talked about their individual training and the increase in their growth as shinobi. Kiba bragged that he had learned two more of his family's jutsus that included the Juujin Bushin (Beast Clone) and the second level of Tsuuga (Piercing Fang), Gatsuuga (Double Piercing Fang) that used Akamaru more often. Noa said that he had been working with Kurenai to become better at his Genjutsu skills. He had already become more proficient at detecting and canceling them and started to learn two or three mid-level Gennin Genjutsus from Kurenai. Naruto was already aware of Hinata's progress as he either observed her training with Hiashi and Hizashi or participated him self. Naruto knew that she had not really progressed in her angle of sight but her distance and ability to see the inner coils of a person had grown. Hinata's progress in Jyuuken had also grown and now she could hit up to the thirty-two strike of her family's finishing technique. Naruto had also grown in power adding a powerful combination called Rakka Hoshi (Falling Star). The combo was a three hit succession that started with a spinning back fist fallowed by a back kick that launched the person in the air and then finished with a jump-spin axe kick that caused the opponent to come crashing back to the ground. Rock Lee, who liked to be Naruto's sparring partner on occasion, could confirm that the technique was rather devastating after he volunteered to be Naruto's first moving target while perfecting it.

Soon the four Konoha shinobi and one resident mercenary arrived in the general area the bandits were sighted and talking soon stopped. They began to move with stealth in order to avoid detection. Because Naruto was familiar with the area he took the lead. Kurenai decided that they would first see the hermit that Naruto knew in the area and see if they could use his place as a base of operations. "We're almost at Raito's place," Naruto whispered to the group. "He's a cranky old goat that doesn't really like many people, well except for me for some reason."

"That is why you're going to contact him and ask if we can use his property," Kurenai whispered back. "We'll hang back while you talk to him."

"Kurenai-sensei, what will we do if he doesn't give us permission?" Noa questioned.

"Then we will have to camp out in the woods Nao," Hinata answered.

"We're at the edge of the Raito's property," Naruto announced. "He'll know he has company as soon as we step foot on his land. In all honesty I think he used to be a shinobi because no matter what I have never been able to sneak up on him."

"We don't want to upset him so the rest of us will wait here while you go talk to him Naruto," Kurenai ordered.

A short time later Naruto arrived at a small hill in a clearing with a small shack at the base. The shack was only big enough for one or two people and some storage space. It was well maintained however, showing that even though the old man liked his privacy he still valued neatness. After only three steps an old man easily as old as the Sandaime Hokage, if not older, walked out of the shack. He was completely bold and whore an old though respectable brown shirt and pants. He stood up straight but walked with a cane and a slight limp. "What are you doing here boy?" Raito asked in a cranky voice. "I haven't sent any word needing any supplies."

"The village has had some reports of bandits moving into the area," Naruto replied. "A Gennin Team has been sent to chase them out and I was selected to show them around the area since I've been out here delivering your supplies. We where hoping we could use home as a base of operations."

"What makes you think I would want a bunch of snot nose punks and their baby sitter around my home?" Raito asked.

"Because the bandits could hurt or kill you," Naruto replied.

"And you think I can't handle some thieving lowlifes?" Raito frowned.

"Yes," Naruto answered flatly.

For a several moments silence reigned until Raito let out a crotchety laugh. "That's what I like about you boy, you don't beat around the bush. Fine you and the others can stay," he turned back to the shack and went inside, just before he closed the door he turned back, "Just don't let them in my home or mess up anything around here."

Naruto did not bother responding and returned to the others. He arrived to see Kurenai and Hinata waiting patiently, Noa looking like he was anxious and Kiba twitching with irritation. "He said we could use his property but not to bother him or any of his things."

"So we're sleeping on the ground anyway?" Kiba asked.

"Raito's place is only big enough for one or two people anyway," Naruto informed.

"And were only using this place as a base of operation," Kurenai added. "He did not higher us and is under no obligation to even tolerate our presence here. Be thankful for what we have." Kiba grudging agreed as Naruto led them into the property to set up camp.

To avoid upsetting Raito, Kurenai decided to set up camp away from his shack, though not to far incase trouble appeared; the thing was that Kurenai did not say where they were going to set up camp. "Now where should we set camp?" she asked. Kurenai asked this because she would often test what her students had learned instead of just issuing orders. She did this so they would learn to think for themselves as well as learn to work as a team.

"We need a place that we can easily defend, has appropriate cover, but still has clear view to the surrounding area," Noa answered.

"And where would that be?" Kurenai prompted.

The three Gennins and Naruto looked around the area, taking note of what they had to work with. The part of the woods they were in was neither particularly thick nor did it have trees large enough for them to effectively hid in. Kiba was the first to speak up; as he came from a long line of hunters he was the first to notice the best place to set up a camp. "That over there would be the best place," Kiba pointed to a group of medium sized bushes in front of large boulder with smaller ones around it. "The bushes will provide cover but we'll be able to see out fairly easy, they will also obscure any fire we make and the rocks will provide a decent back guard."

"Nice place Kiba," Kurenai answered. "Now let's get every thing set up for the night." Her team obeyed and in just under a half an hour their base camp was set up with several traps and early warnings in the surrounding area to alert them if they had any visitors during the night.

The next morning Kurenai woke everyone up early to begin the day. The night was divided into five, two-hour shifts over a ten-hour period ensuring everyone got eight hours of sleep. Although unknown to her young charges Kurenai stayed up all night just incase. As a Jounin she could go several days without sleep so she was quite alert when she woke everyone up. "Alright today we will begin patrolling the forest looking for any sign of the bandits," Kurenai explained over breakfast. "Since this is your first C-Rank mission we'll stay together for safety's sake. We'll start at the north end and work our way back, after lunch we'll repeat with the south end."

For the next four hours the five patrolled the north end of the forest with only brief pauses to search an area for any sign of the bandits. When they stopped Kurenai would hang back and let her team put the tracking skills they practiced during their team training to work. Kiba would have Akamaru sniff the area for any lingering scents that should not be in forest while Hinata scanned with her Byakugan for any footprints or any other signs of activity. Naruto and Noa would stay next to either Kiba and Akamaru or Hinata to guard them so the two with the superior senses could concentrate on their job without worrying about being caught by surprise. After the four hours were up and not finding any signs of the bandits they returned to the base camp for some lunch. After a quick check of the traps and alerts they decided that no one entered the area and they relaxed and enjoyed their lunch.

Once Naruto was finished eating he said, "I think we should check on Raito before going to the south end of the forest."

"I was about to suggest that myself," Kurenai said. "Naruto, you and Kiba go ahead and check on him."

"You're not coming with us?" Kiba asked. He was surprised because he figured that they would all come, not that he was complaining he wanted a chance to prove that he could do succeed in a mission without supervision.

"You won't be that far away and if for some reason you run into trouble we can get to you two in just a few minutes," Kurenai answered.

Naruto and Kiba were about to enter the clearing containing Raito's shack when Naruto spoke up. "Kiba before we get there let me just tell you that Raito will probably insult you the moment he sees you," Naruto warned. "Don't take it personally he does that to everyone even people he likes."

"Don't worry about it," Kiba said dismissively, "I won't do anything."

Not more that five minutes later the entered the clearing and the first thing Raito said when he saw his visitors was, "Boy keep the mutt and white puppy away from my home. I don't want to have to spend the next few days cleaning up his bad smell."

"WHO YOU CALLING A MUTT YOU OLD CRIPPLE!" Kiba yelled back at the insult.

Naruto just shook his head, "I should have known it wouldn't have worked warning him."

Further comments fell to the way side when Raito's head jerk to his left and Akamaru started to growl in the same direction. The sudden change in demeanor of the nin-dog and the hermit caused the two boys to reach for their weapons pouch just before three men walked into the clearing. From their weapons and various scars the Naruto, Kiba and Raito knew they were some of the bandits. "I guess the rumors were true there is an old man living out here," one of the bandits said.

"And look the old geezer has a couple of grandkids as well," the second bandit said.

"Wait one has a Hitai Ate (forehead protector)," the third observed Kiba. "He's probably a ninja."

"You're right," the first bandit agreed. "But he's still just a kid, probably a Gennin. We can handle one Gennin and an old man and his grandkid just fine." The other two nodded and started to take up a guard with their weapons. The first bandit had a spear, the second had a pair of short swords and the third had a large iron mace.

While the bandits were getting ready to attack Kiba and Naruto were quickly making plans of their own. "They think you're the only threat," Naruto said. "That gives us the advantage of surprise."

"I can give Akamaru his pill and we can use the Juujin Bushin (Beast Clone)," Kiba replied. "That will even out the numbers. But I'll need a few seconds to do the jutsu. The one with the spear looks fast enough to get here before I can complete it. The extra reach only adds to that."

"Don't worry you'll have all the time you need," Naruto said. "They don't think I'm any threat so I can provide an easy enough distraction." Kiba nodded in agreement reaching into his pouch for the special solider pills for Akamaru. "Here they come!"

The three bandits started to run directly to Kiba wanting to get rid of the one the perceived as the biggest threat. The bandits were surprised when Naruto dashed towards them and not Kiba like they were expecting. As Naruto approached we reached into his weapons pouch and shuriken holder on his leg and with drew six shuriken, three in each hand, and threw them at the bandits. Naruto was surprised to see that not one of the shuriken hit its target because the bandits proved to be more agile than expected by dodging the projectiles. Still the plan's original purpose succeeded when Kiba called out, "Juujin Bushin no Jutsu!"

From where the bandits landed after their dodge they showed their surprise at seeing the small white puppy transform into another Kiba. Naruto capitalized on this distraction by attacking the closest bandit to him, the one with the iron club. The bandit, however, regained enough sense to avoid Naruto's initial punch and retaliate, with surprising speed, with his weapon. Naruto was able to dodge the heavy club easily enough but caught off guard by the damage done to the ground. The iron club caused more damage then it should have if it was swung by muscle strength alone. Naruto did not have time to ponder this development however as the bandit took another swing at Naruto. This time Naruto back flipped avoiding the powerful downward swing. As soon as Naruto landed he sprung back towards the bandit performing a spinning sidekick aimed right at the bandit's head. The bandit tried to block the kick but did not count on Impact's ability to break solid objects. The result was Naruto kicking through the iron club as well as his foot impacting the bandit in the face, causing him to take damage from Naruto's powerful kick as well as bit of shrapnel from the broken club. The bandit fell into unconsciousness leaving Naruto to wonder how he had gotten so strong.

Kiba, meanwhile, was facing off the other two bandits along side the transformed Akamaru. Akamaru and Kiba had perfect teamwork as all members of the Inuzuka Clan and their dog partners did. But the bandits also showed a surprisingly high amount of teamwork as well. Forcing Kiba and Akamaru to fight with more caution than Kiba anticipated. The original tactic Kiba tried was to attack the spear wielding bandit first getting inside the range of the spear. This was countered by the one wielding the two short swords keeping them from getting in close. After Kiba and Akamaru were driven off to a sufficient distance the first bandit would thrust his spear out driving them back even further. This continued for a couple of minutes and resulted in Kiba getting a small tare in his right sleeve. "This isn't working Akamaru," Kiba whispered to the dog. Akamaru replied with a small growl that only Kiba could understand. "Are you sure? We haven't tried it yet in sparring matches we only did it on stationary targets." The replica of Kiba gave a slight nod of yes to answer the original's question. "Alright, let's go! Gatsuuga!" the two charged the bandits simultaneously and then in perfect synchronization started to spin rapidly forming twin horizontal tornadoes that began to spiral around each other. The Inuzuka Taijutsu technique worked as Kiba and Akamaru plowed into the bandits with devastating force sending them hurling into Raito's house.

When they stopped, they saw Raito with an angry expression due to the damage to his house, "Hey watch where you hit them to next time!"

Kiba ignored the old hermit as Akamaru changed back into a white puppy and Naruto approached them. "We should get back to Kurenai-sensei," Naruto informed.

"No need Naruto we heard the noise from camp," Kurenai said walking into the clearing with Hinata and Noa. "Good job both of you, on handling the bandits." The boys smiled at the praise but it quickly faded when they saw her thoughtful and serious face, "Those bandits were better than they should have been," she muttered. "They were moving faster and hitting harder as well. A clear indication they were using chakra to enhance their blows, that would indicate they had shinobi training."

"What are you saying Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata asked. "Are they Nuke-nins (Missing Ninjas)?"

Kurenai ignored Hinata's question and ordered, "Tie them up." The Gennins obeyed and shortly after all three bandits were sitting on the hill, still unconscious, wrapped in several meters of rope. "Alright leave me alone with them I need to ask them some questions. Wait for me down at the base of the hill."

"But…" Kiba tried to protest but Kurenai cut him off.

"Go, that's an order!" Kurenai said sternly leaving no room for argument. The three Gennin and one young mercenary reluctantly agreed and left her alone.

At the bottom of the hill, where Raito joined them out of curiosity, they waited for over half an hour in silence. When she finally came down it was Raito that asked the question that was on everyone's mind, "What did they say?"

"Just what is was afraid they would," Kurenai answered. "They were trained by a shinobi and from their descriptions he looks to be around Chunin to Jounin level. This Mission just went from C-Rank to B-Rank."

"What do we do now Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"For now we send a message to Konoha informing them of the change," Kurenai answered. "The problem is we can't risk leaving the area. If more bandits come searching for their friends and we're not here to deal with them their leader could leave the area. We mush find out who the shinobi that trained them is."

"Use one of messenger birds to contact Konoha," Raito interrupted. "It'll only take a few hours to reach the village."

"And they will send a couple of Chunin or Jounin to assist us," Kurenai finished. "Alright show me where they are." Raito nodded and escorted Jounin to the small storehouse next to the damaged wall from earlier. Unknown to the group a pair of pale eyes watched from the forest observing the entire exchange.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Less than a half a days travel from Raito's home the bandits set up a small base. It was here that the man with pail eyes, signifying him as a Hyuuga, approached. The moment he did another man appeared from the center of the base. "So what have you found? I assume that since you came back without those three it means that there are some problems that have come up."

"Yes," the Hyuuga answered. "They ran into some trouble when they went to take out that old hermit."

"What kind of trouble?" the other man asked.

"A Gennin Team from Konoha has come to clear out the bandits," the Hyuuga answered.

"We knew this would happen sooner or later," the second man commented. "Still we need to eliminate them before they get back to Konoha and send the Hunter-nins or some Jounin after us. So what are we facing?"

"There are five people, not counting the old man," the Hyuuga reported. "Three Gennin, one Jounin and another kid. The Jounin looks to be Yuuhi Kurenai, the Gennins are an Inuzuka, some no name kid, and the Hyuuga Heiress herself, Hyuuga Hinata."

"Last time I was in the village Kurenai was still a Chunin," the man said. "Must have gotten stronger in the last couple of years. What about the other kid?"

"I think you'll like this," the Hyuuga got a sadistic smile on his face. "It's the Kyuubi Kid."

"The Kyuubi?" the man said. "I owe that thing a lot of pain for what he did to my family!" The man's anger left his face as he started to think more critically, "He never went to the Academy but I heard that he had training from the Heads of the Hyuuga Branch and Main Houses."

"You're right he was," the Hyuuga nodded. "However, what you and the rest of village was not told was that the way the Elders of the Clan would only take the demon in, was if they had certain assurances that could keep him controlled."

"What kind of assurances?" the man wondered.

"The Caged Bird Seal," the Hyuuga answered. "It was implanted on his head when he was a child. I can kill him with a gesture and he will die a painful death."

"Good," the smiled. "He disserves it."

At Raito's home the shinobi and mercenary from Konoha had prepared the area in case other bandits or a shinobi came to the area for the others. They spent the rest of the day and a good portion of the night laying several traps and alerts around the property. Kurenai added to the defense by adding several Genjutsu traps that would either disguise the physical traps that were set up or severally disorient anyone who set of the trigger. After everything was set up Kurenai had ordered everyone to get some rest for they would need all their strength for the next few days.

They were going to wait until help arrived from Konoha. Kurenai used a one time summoning to call a messenger bird and sent it off with the news they discovered. It would only take a few hours for the bird to reach the village but it would take at least two days for help to arrive. That meant for the next two days the Gennins, Jounin, Mercenary and old Hermit were on their own.

It was three or so hours after sunset and Kurenai was wide awake and on guard when Raito came up to her, "It we're lucky we'll help from Konoha will arrive before trouble does," Raito commented.

"I don't think we'll be lucky," Kurenai said. "We'll definitely have to fight in the next two days but the question is will it be more bandits trained like shinobi or the one who trained them."

"Well unless their Jounin level I think your team will hold up quite well," Raito replied. "I saw those boys fight off those first three and I have to say they surprised me. Better than I first thought."

"Naruto was right you are a shinobi," Kurenai said.

"Only made it up to Chunin until I busted my leg and had to give it up," Raito responded. "But I've seen enough shinobi in my day to recognizes talent when I see it. And from what I see you're team has it."

"I'm surprised you were aloud to live out here," Kurenai changed the subject. "Even a Chunin could provide secretes even it they had a busted leg."

"I didn't move out here until this old body was too withered to show any secrets," Raito answered. "I may have left my village but that doesn't mean I'll give up any secrets." Kurenai did not say anymore and went back to her watch as Raito went inside to get some sleep.

Early the next morning was when the attack came. The first warning the group in Raito's shack got was one of the perimeter traps going off. When it did Kurenai cursed as that meant a high level shinobi was out there and the odds were it was the one that trained the bandits.

When they went out Kurenai immediately recognized the leader, "Shoto Rei, Jounin level Nuke-nin from Konoha. You have a lot of nerve setting up camp this close to the village that left."

"True," Shoto answered. "But as soon as I'm done here I and my group will be on our way. With your deaths it will be days before the Hunter-nins can find a trail and we'll be long by then."

"I'll take him," Kurenai addressed her team. "You watch my back and handle the bandits. Fight as a team and we'll get through this."

"Before we start let's thin out your team a bit," Shoto grinned. "Hiryuu!"

There was a blur of movement to the Gennins and Naruto and the next thing anyone knew Naruto collapsed to the ground clutching his head in pain, "AAAARRGGGG!"

Kurenai looked to where the blur landed and recognized the new arrival, Hyuuga Hiryuu, another Nuke-nin from Konoha. Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. When she focused on the movement she was surprised so see Hinata charging the traitor's Hyuuga. She was surprised because usually Hinata was the calmest of her team. The difference in skill between the two Hyuuga became quickly apparent when the young Heiress was knocked aside by a Jyuuken palm to Hinata's abdomen. Kurenai went to intercept the flying Hinata but was cut off by Shoto, "Aren't you forgetting I'm you're opponent!" After that the two Jounin engaged in combat.

Unlike most Jounin battles the one between Kurenai and Rei lacked the high-level high damage jutsu that would normally take place. The reason for this was because of the nature of the combatants. Kurenai is a Genjutsu specialist, meaning her fighting skills are based on trickery and miss direction. Shoto Rei specialized in infiltration and assignation, before he left he was in the Hunter-nin ranks. Subsequently this was the reason he evaded those after him for so long, he knew the tactics as well as they did.

"Kage Magaru no Jutsu (Shadow Bend)," Shoto said. The shadows in the area engulfed the Nuke-nin and soon he faded into the background.

"Kokoro Yowameru no Jutsu (Mind Depress)," Kurenai said. This was a Genjutsu that dulled the senses and mind of anyone except the user in a radius of ten meters. A Jounin is able to fend off the effects enough to still function but their alertness, reaction time, and senses are severely hampered. With her opponent using the Kage Magaru to hind himself this was her best option. It put them on relatively equal ground, with him being hard to for her to track and her being difficult to target or get close to.

For several minutes the two Jounin stocked each other trying to find a way to get a clear shot and cancel the other's jutsu so they could have the advantage and kill the other person. Each had made several glancing blows with kunai and shuriken but neither was serious enough to hamper the other. On several occasions they came with in a meter or two and engaged in kunai to kunai combat but would quickly back off after the first and second stab or slash proved ineffective. It was ironic to note that while neither Jounin was able to break the other's jutsu an outside force did. One that made both freeze in place.

Naruto struggled through the pain that came from the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead. The agony was unbearable and unrelenting yet he used all his strength mental and physical to find his friends. What he saw first was Kiba, Akamaru and Noa being lead off away from him down the hill. The next sight was Kurenai chasing after one of the Nuke-nin that had organized and trained the bandits. The last sight caused Naruto to freeze; it was Hinata lying face down in the dirt. The sight of his first and arguably best friend lying injured caused something to well up within the blonde boy. Naruto could feel it; it was old, primal even, like it had been around longer than he could possible imagine. There was something else as well it felt angry, no, angry was not the word Naruto would use to describe what was coming from the primal something inside of him. The correct word Naruto would use be, rage. An unrelenting yet very controlled rage, and with that rage was power.

It was that power that caused the unbearable pain to be pushed back. Naruto seized that power like a lifeline and pulled. Unlike a lifeline however the power did not pull him in, instead he pulled it out. As he pulled Naruto felt the power fill his body. Like the source the power came from it was primal ancient and filled with a focused rage. This focus Naruto recognized was toward the one who was causing the pain, the person that was activating the Caged Bird Seal. "**I'll kill you!**"

From the point of view from the of Hyuuga Hiryuu that had activated the Hyuuga Curse Seal it was a shock that Naruto that Naruto was able to move enough to survey what was happening around him. When the Hyuuga traitor was still part of the village and the Main House of Hyuuga he had used the seal on members of the Branch House often. This was in fact why he had left, it was judged by Hiashi that he was using the Seal excessively for poor reasons and was going to be punished severely. Subsequently, that was why he targeted Hinata first, as revenge against her father.

When he had used the Curse Seal before the victim would either thrash around or simply fall to their knees screaming in agony. Naruto did thrash but not at the usual amount and he did not scream. It was obvious that Naruto was in unbelievable pain but his resistance was impressive.

"I'm not surprised the demon can withstand the Caged Bird Seal," Hiryuu thought. "But even he will die soon." His thought processes were slammed to an immediate halt when Naruto suddenly stopped moving and lay absolutely still. However unlike ones of the past when Naruto stopped he was not limp indicating death, his body stiffened and went completely ridged. "What's happening?"

Hiryuu's question was answered when he saw Naruto's inner coils start to fill with a reddish-orange chakra. Seconds later the chakra became visible as it started to coat Naruto's body. That was when he started to change. Naruto's hair became longer his fingers started to crack and elongate with his toes following soon after. While his fingers and toe's were growing so were Naruto's nails and incisor teeth. The whisker marks on his cheeks became thicker and darker making his face seem thinner. The last part of Naruto's body that changed were his eyes, they changed from bright blue to deep blood red. When he looked at Hiryuu the Hyuuga Nuke-nin shivered as memories of the Kyuubi's attack flooded his mind. The reaction would have been the same for all the adults in Konoha as there was no one that would ever forget fear the Kyuubi induced in his attackers.

Hiryuu was distracted enough that he missed what Naruto said. But was alert enough to dodge the sudden fist that Naruto threw at him. The result of the dodge was Naruto's fist hitting the ground where Hiryuu was standing not a second before. To understand what happened next would require one to understand the difference in the chakra between a human and a bijuu. It is a concept easily understood; a bijuu simply had levels of chakra that were several orders of magnitudes higher than even the Five Kages. So the result was instead of the normal sized crater the entire hillside blew out from the force of Kyuubi powered Impact blow.

The shockwave caused Hiryuu to be knocked off his feet. With his Byakugan he was able to see Naruto drop into a crouch position and then instantly dash towards him. Just before Naruto was upon him Hiryuu got to his feet and dodged enough for the kick Naruto used to reduce it to a glancing blow. However like a glancing blow from Jyuuken a glancing blow from Impact still causes a lot of pain. Now like all Hyuuga, Hiryuu was used to internal damage so he was able to work through the pain and counter attacked with an open palm strike to Naruto's upper chest.

Naruto took the hit and was sent flying back several meters. This did little to slow the rage fueled Konoha Mercenary for as soon as he landed he launched himself back toward Hiryuu. The two then started to trade blows back and forth. Jyuuken verses Impact, the skill of a Hyuuga Jounin against the primal power of the Kyuubi. Now one witnessing the fight would wonder why Hiryuu had not performed Hakke Shou Kaiten (Heavenly Spin). The problem with this thought was that Hiashi created Kaiten and he only shared its true secrets with four people, his two daughters, his twin brother and his nephew. Now it is true that another Hyuuga could watch him enough and recreate it but the requirements for the technique was a the ability to push chakra out of one's body all at the same time. This exercise was rare among shinobi even the Hyuuga Clan that was on record for having among the best chakra control in the world. This was a skill that Hiryuu lacked and thus he could not perform Hakke Shou Kaiten.

He could however perform another Hyuuga Jyuuken jutsu, the Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou (Sixty Four Point Hands). When Hiryuu knocked Naruto back once again he planned the distance he would fall so Naruto would be in proper position for the jutsu. "You are with in my field of deviation," Hiryuu said. Before Naruto could move or respond Hiryuu was upon him performing the jutsu, "Two Strikes! Four Strikes! Eight Strikes! Sixteen Strikes! Thirty-Two Strikes! Sixty-Four Strikes!"

"**AAAARRRGGGG!**" Naruto yelled as the pain coursed through him. He had been the target for the jutsu in the past but there was never any chakra involved in the sparring session. With the addition of the chakra Naruto understood the true force behind it. Under normal circumstances this would have ended the fight, as the jutsu was a fatal technique given the amount of chakra Hiryuu pushed into Naruto's inner coils. This fight however was far from normal circumstances as Naruto was receiving a steady stream of chakra from the Kyuubi thus instantly canceling the chakra stopping properties of the Taijutsu technique. The pain still took place however, which made Naruto even angrier and thus called out even more of Kyuubi's chakra. "**You'll pay for that!**" Naruto yelled just before he charged. With the extra boost of charka Naruto was able to close the distance between Hiryuu and himself before the Hyuuga could react. When was close enough Naruto punched twice-lunching Hiryuu into the air he followed with a spinning heal kick that sent Hiryuu higher. Naruto then jumped following him and delivered a double punch followed by mid airside kick. At the apex of the flight Naruto spun twice and connected with one last spinning heel kick that sent Hiryuu crashing back into the ground, "**Utsu Koto no Nana Hoshi! **(Strike of the Seven Stars)."

When Naruto landed he saw his opponent was still alive. Because of Kyuubi's rage induced chakra he started to run in for the kill. He ran to the fallen Hyuuga traitor and hauled him up by his clothes getting ready to deliver the killing blow. He cocked his hand back and brought it forth. Just as it was a millimeter from Hiryuu's face a female voice called out, "NARUTO-KUN STOP!" The voice belonged to Hinata and her call caused Kyuubi's rage and chakra to subside. So when Hinata joined Naruto he was back to his normal staff, "You won Naruto you don't have to kill him."

Back with Kurenai and Shoto Rei, Kurenai noticed that her opponent had gone into a kind of trance ever since the Kyuubi's chakra came out of Naruto. Kurenai could easily guess the cause of the trance. She knew that all of Rei's family died in the Kyuubi's attack and even now it affected him. In fact it was suspected Shoto left the village because he knew he would never get a chance to kill the Konoha's Jinchuuriki as long as Naruto was under the Hyuuga's care.

After a quick glance around Kurenai noticed that the bandits had either been driven off or were unconscious because of fighting Noa and Kiba. "They may have been trained by shinobi but they lack the real mentality to work as a true team and abandoned the others." She then looked over to where Naruto had fallen to his knees with Hinata kneeling next to him, "Or they just got scared off by the Kyuubi's chakra," she thought.

Kurenai finally brought her attention back to matter at hand. "Naruto seems fine so the Seal is still in place. With Rei like he is I can end this now." Kurenai reached into her weapons pouch and pulled out a pair of kunai that had poison on the blades. These poisoned kunai were also the result of her Genjutsu specialty. As except for some forbidden Genjutsu the illusions were non-lethal. This meant the shinobi that specialized in the jutsu category needed another way to finish off her opponents. Poison kunai were her method. "The poison isn't strong concentrated enough for them to be useful in the previous fight," Kurenai thought. "But with him distracted it should do just fine for what I have planned." Kurenai then, as silently as she could, snuck up behind Shoto and stabbed him in the slashed his neck with both. Shoto looked on in surprise as he felt his blood draining from his neck. "The poison keeps the blood from clotting, you'll be dead in a few seconds." Without another word she walked off to check on her team.

When Kurenai arrived at Naruto and Hinata, Kiba and Noa had come as well. The first to speak was Kiba. "What the hell happened?" his voice was a mix of awe and fear. "Akamaru was scarred out of his mind by the chakra you put out."

Before Naruto could say anything Kurenai answered for him. "Kiba you may not know this but there are different kinds of chakra. Some people have these different types, what you felt was one of them." Kurenai had the focus of all the young people now, "Naruto's appears to be triggered by emotion. It could be a powerful weapon if controlled properly. If not if could do more harm then good." What she was saying was true. There are different types of chakra and Naruto was able to draw it out with his emotion, that is if what she felt was Naruto's feelings anyway.

"Wait, wait," Noa interrupted. "Different kinds of chakra? Are you serious?"

"Deadly serious," Kurenai answered with stone face.

"Is it like a Blood Limit then?" Kiba asked.

"Yes and know," Kurenai answered. "Different types of chakra can just appear and it is suspected that it can be passed on to children but it is not for sure. I'm not really the expert on this kind of thing."

"Then who is and expert on the different chakra types Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata asked. She was worried about Naruto and wanted to know anyway she could help him.

"Your Father actually," Kurenai answered. "As well as the Sandaime Hokage. You should speak with them about it when we get back." Naruto only nodded as he was still slightly out of it from the drain. The others seemed to accept the answer and the matter was dropped for the moment. "There I told the truth without revealing any secrets. Hiashi-sama and Hokage-sama will be able to handle it from here."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The two Jounin, Hatake Kakashi and Yuuhi Kurenai, were standing in the Hokage's office waiting for him to finish reading through their reports. They were both here because both their C-Rank Missions had escalated to B-Rank Missions. Kurenai had already given her oral report and explained what happened. Kakashi had just arrived, late as usual, and Sandaime was just now reading through his report.

After he was finished reading the report he addressed Kakashi, "You indicate that it was actually Shikamaru that was pivotal in defeating the Nuke-nin known as Haku." Kakashi glanced down from his book and gave a slight nod. "Care to explain?"

Knowing this was not a request Kakashi put his book away. "That kid is a lot better than just about anyone gave him credit for," Kakashi began. "Probably the smartest Gennin to come out of the Academy in decades."

"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked. "If I remember right he had the lowest grades of the graduating class."

"True enough," Kakashi replied not arguing that fact. "But he just found it was too much effort to do more than the bare minimum on the tests."

"In other words he's lazy," Kurenai said dryly. "Let me guess, he's you're favorite student."

Kakashi ignored the barb and continued the report. "After the three completed their training Shikamaru fell asleep from exhaustion. He was not used to the level of activity he was put through so his stamina was rather low. So I decided to let him remain at the Tazuna's house. Good thing too, as the bridge builder's daughter and grandson were attacked while the rest of us were fight at the bridge." He sighed once again resisting the urge to reach for his favorite book, "According to Shikamaru, he was able to trap the two thugs Gatou sent with the Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Copy) and forced them to kill each other. And as I said earlier, at the same time Sakura, Sasuke and I were fighting Zabuza and his partner Haku. Zabuza kept me occupied while Haku fought Sasuke. It went badly for Sasuke when Haku used his Bloodline Limit…

"Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoushou (Secret Skill Demonic Ice Mirrors)," The masked boy now known as Haku said. "You have now chance of winning now." To the shinobi from Konoha's amazement, Haku sunk his body into one of the mirrors.

From Sasuke's point of view, he could not tell which Haku was the correct real one and which was were the reflections. He did the only thing he could think of and brought out a kunai while tightening into a combat stance that cover as many vital points as possible. The problem was Haku's speed, he could easily get behind Sasuke and pierce him from the back. "If I had my Sharingan I could track his movements," Sasuke thought. Three needles piercing him at the same time interrupted his thoughts: one in his left shoulder, one in his right knee and the last one in his right elbow. "He's wearing down my mobility by attacking my joints!" Sasuke knew he was in deep trouble now and could only wonder why he was not strong enough to defeat this enemy. "How much farther do I have to go to surpass him?"

At the end of the bridge Kakashi was scanning the mist with his eyes, ears and nose. He had to find Zabuza and end this as quickly as possible so he could go and help Sasuke. The thing was, if Shikamaru were there that would not have been a problem. While even lazier than Kakashi himself, he knew he could count on the shadow user when he needed him. With the Kage Mane no Jutsu Haku would have been bound before his Bloodline Limit could finish activating. As soon as the mirrors formed Shikamaru would have froze him in place. Haku was fast but not as fast as Shikamaur's shadow at that range. "The mist is too thick for me to see him and he's to quite to hear him, so I have to find him by smell. My nose is good but not good enough to find Zabuza before he can kill Tazuna. That means…" Kakashi reached into his Jounin vest and retrieved a small scroll. Slashing open his palm for the right amount of blood, Kakashi smeared it on the scroll, "Doton Tsuiga no Jutsu (Earth Tracking Fang)." He then slammed the scroll down onto the ground. All he could do now was wait.

Shikamaru was using the skills he learned by climbing the trees to hold himself to the bottom of the bridge. He approached the location of the fight without being noticed by walking on the underside of the bridge. When he arrived to where his teammates were fighting he saw Haku was picking Sasuke apart while Sakura guarded Tazuna. He could not find Kakashi nor Zabuza, so that meant both were keeping the other busy. "This is so troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled. "Sasuke got himself trapped and Sakura can't help as it would leave Tazuna too vulnerable." Shikamaru closed his eyes and sat in his favorite thinking pose. After only a few seconds his eyes opened and went to work setting up his plan.

On the bridge Haku was wearing Sasuke down. The Uchiha survivor now had nearly a dozen senbon needles in his body, each one restricting his movement. He had activated the Sharingan just moments before but it did him little good at this point. He could track Haku's movements easily enough, but with his injuries and Haku moving even faster in the mirrors Sasuke had not hope of keeping up. "So you have the Sharingan as well," Haku said. "That means I cannot let this continue." He pulled out six senbon needles putting three in each hand and he, as well as all of the, images in the mirrors threw them at Sasuke.

Sasuke knew what really happened thanks to the Sharingan. Haku merely used his speed while inside the mirrors to move from one to another and throw a new set of senbon each time he paused. Still, several dozen of the piercing weapons were now flying right at him at high velocity, "I can't get away!"

It at this point three things happened at the same time, namely three explosions went off at different locations. One explosion at the end of the bridge, one next to the ice mirrors and one under the ice mirrors. The result was Sasuke falling to the ground thus avoiding most of the senbon needles and the ones that actually did hit him were in non vital areas, Haku was blinded and knocked out of his mirrors, because he was in mid transit between two, by the flash caused by the explosion in next to the prison, and finally the mist around Kakashi and Zabuza was cleared by the wind of the caused by the last explosion. As Haku stood he asked the question that was on everyone's mind, "What happened?"

The moment he tried to walk however he found himself completely frozen in place. The reason why came from the voice behind him near the edge of the bridge, "Kage Mane no Jutsu, successful…"

As Kakashi continued to report on what happened during the fight his fellow Jounin and the Hokage were silently agreeing with his earlier statement about Shikamaru's genius. "Once Zabuza saw he no longer had the advantage he made a desperate attempt on Tazuna." At this point he chuckled a little, "Only to find that he too was caught in Shikamaru's jutsu, he used the explosions as a distraction to get his shadow close enough to both of them." The Hokage and Kurenai's opinion on the young shadow user went up even more. "Shikamaru ran out of chakra soon after but by that time my dogs found and pinned Zabuza while Haku was incapacitated by Sasuke. I killed Zabuza with my Chidori and soon after that Gatou showed up with an army of thugs. They were driven off the people of Wave. Gatou was captured by Sakura and is standing trial in Wave as we speak."

"What happened to Haku?" the Hokage asked.

"That was up in the air for a couple of days afterwards," Kakashi said. "There was a debate of having him stand trial as well. It was actually Tsunami that persuaded leniency for him. As for the moment he's on probation in Wave acting as guard for the bridge. In all honesty I think the people of Wave spared him simply because they were tired of all the deaths caused by Gatou."

"Very well," Sandaime said. "You can both leave. I have other matters to attend to." The two Jounin bowed and left the office. After they left the Hokage looked up at the picture of his blonde successor/predecessor, "Looks like I'll finally tell Naruto the full true." For years now Sarutobi felt that Naruto had suspicions about the Seal on his stomach, but for some reason the Hyuuga Ward never asked anything beyond what it did to his chakra control. That changed however just a few days ago when he called on Kyuubi's chakra. The Old Hokage knew those questions would come in just a couple of hours when Hiashi and Naruto came to his office. "Chika let me know when Hyuuga-sama and Naruto arrive."

His Chunin secretary replied, "Yes Hokage-sama."

Two hours later the Hokage's secretary announced the pair's arrival. When they entered Hiashi had his typical stoic look on his face but Naruto seemed nervous to be here for once. "Naruto," the Hokage addressed. "Do you know why I called you and Hiashi-sama here?"

"I suspect it has to do with the chakra I summoned a few days ago," Naruto answered a bit hesitantly.

"Correct," the Hokage nodded. "Do you have any idea what was the cause of the chakra or where it came from?"

"I was able to draw it out because I saw Hinata on the ground and I just wanted something to make that traitor pay for what he did, and I found drew out the chakra with my anger," Naruto said. "As too where it came from I don't know, but I have a feeling it has to do with the Seal on my stomach."

"Correct Naruto," Hiashi said. "What Kurenai told you about there being different types of chakra was the truth, she, however, did not tell you the entire truth. The Seal on your stomach was designed and created by Yondaime." Haishi paused for a moment when Naruto gasped at the identity of the designer of his larger Seal. "It was designed to imprison the source of that chakra."

"Wh…what's the source," Naruto had a feeling he knew, but he really did not want to believe it.

"The source of that chakra…" the Hokage took over again. "Is the Kyuubi." Both older men saw the color from Naruto's face pale a bit and felt guilty for several reasons.

"I…I though Yondaime killed him," Naruto said.

"That is what you and the others your age were told," the Hokage said now kneeling before the boy. "But you must understand to kill the Kyuubi one has to drain away all its chakra. No human is strong enough to do that, even the strongest of the Boss Summons are only strong enough to last a short time against even the weakest of the Bijuu. So he did the only thing he was capable of, he sealed him away..."

"In me," Naruto said softly. "Is that why everyone hates me?"

Hiashi at this point put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. The Hyuuga Head did not show his emotions often but those around him knew he did care because of the small gestures such as this. "Not everyone hates you Naruto. The Hyuuga Clan does not hate you, well except the Elders but who cares about, in your words, 'those old fossils' think," Naruto had to smile at that. He had said that when he was young when the Elders denied him entrance into the Academy. It actually caused Haishi to laugh a little bit at the time. "You may not be related by blood, but you are apart of our Clan, our family."

Naruto smiled again at Hiashi's declaration he knew how the man felt but Naruto still like to hear it, especially now. "I…I want to be alone for a bit. C…can I go?"

"Yes Naruto," the Hokage said. "We're done for now. If you have any questions come and ask me." Naruto nodded before bowing and leaving the room. Once he was out the Professor turned to Hiashi, "That went better than I thought."

"He's a strong one," Hiashi stated. "He'll be fine now. The real problem isn't Naruto however, the problem is everyone else. If word gets out that the Kyuubi's chakra over road the Caged Bird Seal…"

"Then Naruto will become a target for open attacks," Sarutobi concluded. "We must keep this between us for Naruto's safety. So far only five people know about that detail. Naruto, You, Hizashi, Kurenai and myself are the only ones that know and I intend to keep it that way."

"Can Kurenai be trusted with this?" Hiashi asked.

"Yes," the Hokage affirmed. "She has sworn to secrecy and has take a Blood Seal Oath to in addition to her promise. She likes Naruto and doesn't want to see him hurt either." Hiashi nodded satisfied for now, but plans for the future still needed to be made just in case word did get out.

Naruto was wandering around the village lost in thought. The news about the Kyuubi had shaken him, though not as much some would think. He always knew he was different simply because of the Curse Seal and the 'Spiral Seal' on his body. Also the support of his adoptive family over the years had strengthened him as well and knowing that the men he looked up to still cared about him even with the Kyuubi helped a great deal in dealing with the news. Still he did wonder if his relationship with those his own age would change now that he knew the truth. He really hopped it would not.

"Hey let me go!" Naruto's thoughts were cut off by a familiar shout from around the corner. When he moved to see what was going on he saw a stranger holding a young academy student he recognized as Sandaime's grandson, Konohamaru. Naruto knew the young kid because of all the time Naruto spent at the Hokage's personal library. He liked the kid though his Jounin tutor could be a pain.

"I would let him go if I were you," Naruto said approaching them.

"And what's a civilian like you going to do if I don't?" the stranger asked.

"Kankuro don't cause trouble," Kankuro's blonde female companion said. Kankuro turned to the blonde female to talk to her and Naruto capitalized on his inattention. Naruto blurred forward and punching Kankuro in the face while grabbing Konohamaru and jumping back to his original position.

"You punk!" Kankuro reached behind his back and pulled the bundle off, setting it on the ground. The blonde girl looked shocked drawing Kankuro's attention, "I know what you're going to say, Temari, but these guys need to be taught a lesson."

"The only one who's going to be taught a lesson today is you if you don't back off!" Naruto warned.

"You think just because you got a cheap shot you're a threat to me?" Kankuro asked.

"Regardless if I am a threat there is a bigger threat near by," Naruto answered. "Konohamaru here just so happens to be the Hokage's Grandson," the pair shifted nervously at the news. "And he always has at least a Jounin around to keep him out of trouble, right Ebisu."

A Jounin appeared beside Naruto and in front of Konohamaru, "Correct Naruto." He turned to the Temari and Kankuro, "By your Suna Hitai Ate, I assume you two are here for the Chunin Exam. Unless you want you're passports revoked and thus kicked out of the Exam I suggest you do not cause anymore trouble."

"I can assure you they will not," a new voice replied.

The shinobi, mercenary, and Academy student turned to the new voice to see another person with a Suna Hitai Ate hanging upside down on a branch in a nearby tree. Kankuro and Temari suddenly became very nervous at the new comer, "G…Gaara, I wasn't going to cause any trouble. I was just messing around that's all."

"Be quite Kankuro or I'll kill you," Gaara said before disappearing in a swirl of sand only to reappear in front of the other two from Suna. "You are an embarrassment to our village.

While this was going on Ebisu narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. "This kid is no ordinary Gennin. Even I couldn't detect him until the last moment."

Gaara had finished scolding the other two when he turned back to the three from Konoha. "You," gesturing to Naruto. "Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, resident Mercenary of Konoha," Naruto said evenly. He could tell this Gennin was dangerous and needed extreme caution to be dealt with. "And you are?"

"Gaara no Sabaku," Gaara answered. He turned and the other two left following nervously behind him.

"Naruto," Ebisu said. His voice was deathly serious. "Be on guard around that one. He's no ordinary Gennin and he has the smell of death on him." Naruto nodded as Ebisu took Konohamaru away for his daily lessons.

"So the Chunin Exam is taking place soon," Naruto muttered. "I wonder if Neji and Hinata get nominated." He smiled at that thought, "Well if they do, I hope they do well, looks like there's going to be some pretty strong competition."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

It was only a couple of days since Naruto was told the truth of the Seal on his stomach. The news was a mixed blessing, Naruto always wondered why people looked at his like they did and now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. They looked at him with hate because he was a constant reminder of family and friends lost during the fight with the Kyuubi. Now that he knew the reason Naruto could scrutinize the looks better. What he found in the glares actually surprised him. With Naruto being raised by the Hyuuga and being constantly around those that are the best at it, Naruto was able to understand a person's emotions quite well at just a glance of their posture. That was how he was able to divide the glares into three categories; those that looked him in the eye with hate, those that looked towards his abdomen with hate, and finally those that would look at his with a mix of anger and a trace of sadness.

The first category of people saw Naruto as the Kyuubi, like the fox had take a human form when Yondaime sealed it. The next group seemed to understand that Naruto was not the Kyuubi but could not let go of their hate knowing that it was still alive. The last group did not seem to hate Naruto, but were still angry at the demon; they also seemed a bit sad that Naruto had to bare the burden alone.

This made Naruto actually feel somewhat better. He now knew that there were at least some people out side the Hyuuga Clan that did not out right hate him. So after a day of observing the villagers and sleeping on his analysis Naruto was back to his usual self.

Which brought up another topic that presented itself the same day. The Chunin Exam was coming up and if Naruto's hunch was accurate then Kurenai and Gai were going to nominate their teams. Naruto figured after the way Kiba, Noa and Hinata handled themselves during their C-Rank mission Kurenai felt they had progressed enough to take it. From the missions that Naruto accompanied with Neji, Lee and Tenten Naruto knew that Gai felt they were ready as well.

On the subject of the elder Hyuuga child's team, Naruto had too admit when he first met Rock Lee a year ago, when Neji was first put on his Gennin team, he did not think to much of him. He could now freely admit that he was wrong. Rock Lee went from not even being able to do a single jutsu, making him one of the worst students at the Academy to the second strongest Gennin in Konoha. That just attributed to Gai's teaching and Lee's determination, even if they were arguably the strangest teacher and student anyone anywhere would ever meet.

Naruto checked the sun to try and determine the time when he saw it was around two o'clock in the afternoon he decided to make his way over to the Hokage Tower. He knew there would not be any missions for him with the Chunin Exam coming up soon but he might be able see if the Hokage would let him take a look at some jutsu scrolls. Naruto knew a fare number of jutsus but still could not perform them. Still if he knew what they were he could counter or avoid them better.

At the Hokage Tower the Jounin-sensei's were meeting in the Hokage's Office for nominating Gennins for the Chunin Exam. "We'll hear from the Rookie Gennin Teams' Jounin Sensei first," Sandaime said.

A Jounin with a beard and smoking a cigarette stepped forward first, "I. Sarutobi Asuma Jounin leader of Team 8 nominate Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji and Aburame Shino for the Chunin Exam."

Next to step up was a Jounin with silver hair, a mask over his mouth and nose, and his Hitai Ate over one eye, "I, Hatake Kakashi, Jounin leader of Team 7 nominate Nara Shikamaru, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke for the Chunin Exam."

Finally Kurenai stepped up, "I, Yuuhi Kurenai, Jounin leader of Team 10 nominate Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Gin Noa for the Chunin Exam."

The Hokage sat back in his chair at the news, "All nine Rookie Gennin. First time in five years since a Rookie Gennin was nominated almost twenty since all nine. Either the Jounins are overestimating their students skills or we have a stronger group than average this year." Thinking back to the mission reports he read over just recently made him conclude, "I think it's that we have stronger group this years." He could not help but smile a little at that thought. Seeing a strong future in the strong Gennin almost made up for the horrifying amount of paperwork he had to do.

At this point a Chunin in the back pushed his way forward, "Hokage-sama please let me speak!" The group turned to the Chunin noticing he had a scar across his nose signifying him as Umino Iruka.

"Yes what is it Iruka?" asked the Hokage. His previous smile dropped a bit as he already knew Iruka's next comment would be.

"The Chunin Exam is too dangerous for the Rookie Gennin," Iruka began. "They were each my students at the Academy and I can tell you that they are not ready for the Exam."

"They may have been your students at the Academy, Chunin," Kakashi spoke up. "But now they are our subordinates. My team completed a B-Rank mission, where they faced a Hunter-nin Level Nuke-nin just two weeks ago and they performed quite well."

Many of the shinobi whispered on the news most had not heard of the mission to Wave and were impressed by the statement. Kurenai took this time to speak up as well, "My team also completed a high level mission, B-Rank bordering A-rank, fighting off shinobi trained bandits as well as two Jounin level Nuke-nins." She normally did not like to brag but a little competition between the Jounin senseis often came up.

Asuma took a long drag off his cigarette, "My team's ready." His team did not complete any high level mission but he still felt his team was ready. Especially Shino, the boy had a quite attitude but his tactical thinking was superb. His logical thought process aloud him to dissect and counter just about any strategy an opponent could come up with. Just what the examiners wanted to see in a Chunin.

"If you feel the need to test them yourself Iruka then feel free to proceed," the Hokage said. "Now we'll move on to the more experienced Gennin Teams." The aged leader of Konoha knew Iruka meant well and if he needed the reassurance of testing the Gennin than so be it.

Gai leapt forward over several shinobi in the room landing in his 'nice guy' pose in front of the Hokage. The room gave a collective groan, as they knew what was coming. "I Maito Gai, the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha, nominate Hyuuga Neji, Tamura Tenten, and the beautiful Rock Lee for the Chunin Exam!" the thick browed Jounin shouted near the top of his lungs. After many of the shinobi recovered from temporary hearing loss the rest of the Jounins continued to nominate their students.

After the meeting was finished the Jounins and Chunins left the Hokage's office to inform the necessary people who would be taking the Chunin Exam. As Naruto was waiting outside the Hokage's Office he saw the people leaving. Most simply ignored him but a few, the ones he did jobs with their teams, gave him a brief nod as a curiosity. One however paused for a brief moment to glare at the young mercenary. He had silver hair covered by a bandana. Naruto knew him as Mizuki, a Chunin from the Academy. He remembered him from various times he went to the Academy as Hinata's escort. Once the group passed, Naruto entered the Hokage's Office to ask if he could use his Library. As he did he could not help but be bothered by Mizuki, the glare contained more than the usual hate.

The next morning Hinata was waiting with her team for Kurenai to show up. The Jounin was a little behind schedule this morning but they were not overly concerned. After fifteen minutes of waiting the red eyed woman finally showed up. "Sorry I'm late," Kurenai apologized. "But I had to pick some things up this morning." She pulled out three sheets of paper and handed one to each student, "These are forms for the Chunin Exam. I have nominated all of you for it. Sign up or not as you wish, but in either case we won't be doing missions or training for a while."

The Gennin were so surprised by the announcement that they took the forms without even realizing it. Once their surprise passed, and they realized they had the forms, each Gennin all smiled at their sensei's faith in their growth. It was Kiba that spoke for them, "You bet we're going to take the Exam!" he turned to Hinata and Noa, "Right guys." The two nodded before he turned to his puppy, "Right Akamaru!" the nin-dog barked an affirmative wagging his tail.

"Alright, then report to room 301 next week for the Exam at 10:00 A.M.," Kurenai said. The three Gennin nodded and Kurenai disappeared into a puff of smoke.

"Well since there is no training today, I want to get home," Noa said. "I want to tell my parents I've been nominated for the Chunin Exam."

"I should returned as well," Hinata said. "Outosan will want to be informed as well."

"Yeah same here," Kiba agreed. "I guess we'll each other later then." The Inuzuka waved as he and Akamaru left. As he left his teammates heard him say, "Can't wait to show up that arrogant Uchiha."

A little bit latter Hinata met up with Naruto. He was coming back from a sparring secession with Rock Lee and had various bruises covering his body. It was good exercise for both youngsters though they tended to ache in the morning. "Naruto-kun, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine Hinata," Naruto answered. "Just got back from sparring with Lee. He said Gai-sensei has nominated his team for the Chunin Exam."

"Kurenai-sensei has done the same," Hinata replied.

"Well I know you'll do great," Naruto gave his friend a broad fox-like smile. Then instantly the smile left and Naruto became serious, "A couple of days ago I met a Gennin from Suna that came for the Exam. I did not even notice his arrival until he spoke. Ebisu said he was dangerous and told me to be careful around him."

"Who was this Gennin?" Hinata asked. Ebisu maybe a kiss-up be he was still a Jounin. A warning from him about another person should be taken very seriously.

"His name was Sabaku no Gaara," Naruto answered. "He has red hair, carries a gourd and looks like he hasn't slept in a while."

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him," Hinata said. "Come on, let's head back home." The pair did not take more than four steps when they both dodged to the left and right as a pair of kunai flew by. Without a moments hesitation Hinata activated her Byakugan and zeroed in on the person that attacked them.

She found him twenty meters away preparing another set of Kunai. This time he was attaching a tag infused with chakra to each kunai. She signaled to Naruto the attacker's location and he sped off in his direction. Naruto was half way to the unknown person when he saw the kunai with the tag on it coming right at him. With a quick application of chakra to his feet Naruto started to glide across the ground and nimbly dodged the kunai. He then pulled out a pair of shuriken and threw them at his opponent. The man dodged the attack but was kicked in the stomach by Hinata and landed onto the ground. Naruto slid to a stop while putting a kunai right to the assailant's face. "Attacking the Hyuuga Heiress in broad daylight in the middle of Konoha is not the smartest move you can make," Naruto said.

"I never thought you would be a traitor, Iruka-sensei," Hinata said joining Naruto with her own kunai. Her Byakugan was active so she could see through the Henge (Transformation) Iruka had on.

Sighing in defeat, though he had a smile on his face, Iruka dropped the disguise. "I guess Kurenai-san was right. You are ready for the Chunin Exam. I'm sorry for attacking you but I had to make sure you were ready. If you didn't pass this little test I would have told the Hokage you weren't ready and he would have revoked your nomination."

Hinata, like all Hyuuga, was proficient at detecting when someone was lying by his or her body movements. Everything her Byakugan told her said Iruka was telling the truth. She put away her Kunai and Naruto followed suit. "Thank you for your concern Iruka-sensei, but did you have too attach explosive notes those kunai?"

Iruka gave a small chuckle, "Those tags weren't explosive notes. They were just flash notes and the kunai were blunted." He then turned to Naruto with an unreadable expression for a moment then his face became curious, "That ability you did to dodge the kunai, I've never actually seen anything like it. What was it and how did you do it?"

Naruto looked at the Chunin unsure what to do for a second. He was never able to get a good read on the Chunin. Iruka had always been cordial but there was something underneath the politeness that Naruto never could catch. "It's a chakra exercise I came up. It's basically the opposite of the wall walking exercise; instead of using chakra to stick you use your chakra to slide. The trick is to move you're chakra like a stream on the bottom of your foot while you push off. You have to maintain the proper rate of chakra movement otherwise you'll trip on the ground. You also have to be aware of the terrain as a loose rock or pebbled could also make you trip."

"Impressive," Iruka said. "Well I must be going. So long Hinata-san, Uzumaki-san." The Chunin left without another word.

Not much longer at the Hyuuga Compound, Naruto and Hinata entered the training area where Hiashi was working with Hanabi on her Jyuuken Kata as Neji and Hizashi observed from the side. "That is enough for now Hanabi," Hiashi instructed. "Welcome back Hinata, Naruto."

"Otosan (father), Ojisan (uncle), Neji-niisan (brother), Hanabi-imoto (little sister)," Hinata greeted.

"Hiashi-sama, Hizashi-sama, Neji, Hanabi," Naruto followed soon after

"Kurenai-sensei has nominated my team for the Chunin Exam," Hinata announced.

"So I have heard," Hiashi replied.

"I had heard that all the Rookie Gennin have been nominated," Hizashi added. "First time in a long while that all the Rookie Gennin Teams have been nominated."

"That means Uchiha Sasuke will be attending," Neji commented. "Word around Konoha is that he recently activated his Sharingan."

"That would make him a formidable opponent," Hanabi spoke up. Discussions like this were common among the twins' family and everyone usually contributed at least a little. She like reading on the Hyuuga family history and found out about the Sharingan was derived from the Byakugan. She knew its abilities and the advantage it gave the possessor.

"I wouldn't be so sure Hanabi," Naruto said. "While the Sharingan is a strong Bloodlimit, it is the person that yields it that determines whether or not it is effective."

"I take it that your opinion of Uchiha is not favorable?" Hiashi asked.

Naruto shook his head. "Unless he has improved since the last time I saw him, I am not. The last time I saw him he was not much stronger than he was at the Academy. The Sharingan may give an advantage over most people, but if he relies too much on it he will be defeated, especially against people that specialize in Taijutsu like us or Neji's teammate Lee, or if he faces a person with a Bloodlimit that the Sharingan can't predict." Naruto shook his head again, "In all honesty I know he wants to get stronger, anyone can see that, but I think something is either holding him back or not pushing him enough."

"It may be a little of both," Hiashi stated. "His past haunts him and while Kakashi is one of the strongest Jounin in the village, his attitude is not all that inspiring as a sensei."

"The person you both should be weary of if Aburame Shino," Hizashi said. "The Aburame Clan are all highly intelligent and their Kikai (Destruction Bugs) can drain chakra as fast as we can block it. I have been on missions with his father and have seen them in action."

"There is another person you should watch out for," Naruto spoke up drawing everyone's attention. "I already told Hinata about him. He's from Suna and his name in Sabaku no Gaara."

"That would be the Kazekage's son," Hiashi mused. "This definitely has the making for a memorable Exam." The Hyuuga Head turned serious focusing on Hinata and Neji, "Be sure to show everyone the strength of our Clan and of our Village." The two Gennin gave a stiff nod silently promising to give the Exam everything they had.

Authors Note: I added the part about Sasuke because it is my belief that his growth was because of Naruto. The competition between Naruto and Sasuke is what pushed him to become as strong as he was. Some like Shikamaru would not push anyone and Kakashi really did not train his team except for the tree climbing which I believe he should have taught in the beginning.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The day of the first part of the Chunin Exam arrived. Hinata had agreed to meet her team at their usual training grounds. It was about equal distance from the Academy to all of their homes so it made a logical choice to meet. That morning she had awoken earlier than usual because of the anticipation of the Exam. She knew that this might be very difficult to pass simply because of the people she knew that were going to be in attendance. That did not include the people she did not know of. The one person she was not worried about facing was her cousin Neji. The concern from the others was mostly due to lack of information, only fools underestimated opponents. She had no concern about Neji because she already knew what to expect if she faced him. Both agreed to fight with everything they had so they could be proud regardless if they won or lost.

The familiar dog bark from Akamaru alerted Hinata that she was actually the last to arrive. "Guess I'm not the only one who's anxious," Hinata thought. She waved at the pair of boys while she asked, "So are you ready?"

"You bet we are!" Kiba answered full of confidence. "We've been training hard ever since we started being a Gennin! In fact we've trained so hard I don't see why they just don't give us Chunin Rank right now!"

"I'm not too sure I agree completely with Kiba but I know I'm ready for the test," Noa answered.

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Kiba asked. "Let's go!"

Not more than ten minutes later Team 10 entered the Academy. When they were climbing the stairs Noa suddenly stopped and shook his head for a moment. When his teammates looked at him he explained, "I think we just entered a Genjutsu."

"Byakugan," Hinata whispered activating her Bloodline Limit. "We are," she confirmed Noa's statement. "Though it is not a very strong one it seems to encompass the entire second floor." She focused her charka more and traced the net like charka strands back to their source. "The Genjutsu seems to becoming from two Chunin that are guarding a door way on the second floor. A lot of Gennin are there to trying to get past." She saw one poor shinobi from Kiri (Mist) get thrown back away from the door. "And not doing a very good job apparently."

"Is that the first test?" Kiba asked. "Seems pretty simple if the first part is a simple Genjutsu."

"I think their mostly trying to weed out those that wouldn't survive Kiba," Hinata answered turning off her Byakugan. "If they can't get past this Genjutsu then they wouldn't survive the Exam."

Kiba gave a shrug of indifference, "Well let's go if they can't make then they're not worth our time."

When they arrived at the hall where Hinata saw the base of the Genjutsu she noticed a familiar boy a year older then her being knocked back by one of the guards. The boy was Neji's ever-passionate green wearing teammate Rock Lee. "Hinata isn't that you're cousins teammate?" Noa asked.

Hinata gave a nod as Neji's other teammate came up to the guards. "Please let us through," Tenten said. "We need to get through for the exam."

"You should be thanking us for keeping you out," the guard with a bandage across his nose replied. "We're only looking out for your well being."

His partner wearing a bandana on his head joined in, "Yeah we've taken this Exam before. People often have carrier-ending injuries or even die in this Exam. If you know what's good for you, you'll leave now."

"What are they doing?" Noa asked. "Your cousin and his team should easily be able to detect the Genjutsu."

Before Hinata could reply a new voice spoke loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear, "Drop the Genjutsu and get out of the way. We're trying to get to the third floor." Team 10 along with everyone else in the hallway turned to the new comer spotting Team 7 walking up to the crowd. The one who spoke, Sasuke, turned back to his team, "You detected it too right Sakura, you're the Genjutsu type after all."

Sakura had a small blush at being addressed by her fan-girl fantasy, "Or course Sasuke-kun we are after all only on the second floor."

Kiba mutter a "Show off," at the display from this year's Rookie of the Year.

The third member of Team 7 just signed saying, "It's too troublesome to be here. I should have never come."

The guard with the bandage smirk as the sign over the door warped leaving the real number of the room they were guarding in the place of the false one. "So you discovered it," he said to Sasuke. "Well that doesn't mean anything." The guard charged Sasuke with a straight punch to the face. Sasuke was just quick enough to bring his arm up to block but not completely and the result was a glancing blow off chin.

Sasuke frowned at the blow and went to kick the guard while the guard was about to counter attack. Just as the two blows were about to land a pair of heavily bandaged hands suddenly stopped them. Both Sasuke and the guard were surprised to see that it was Rock Lee who just minutes ago was thrown down so easily.

"Lee," Tenten sighed. "Weren't you the one that said not to draw attention to ourselves? Why'd you decide to stop them?"

Tenten's answer came when Lee turned to Sakura. "I like you, I protect you with my life. Will you go out with me?" Sakura frantically shook her head no causing the poor Gai look alike to deflate in sadness.

While this was going on the Sasuke was wondering how strong these guys were. One was able to hit him and the other was so fast he could not even follow him. "What kind of guys are at this Exam?" he asked silently.

"Lee, Tenten we should go," Neji said. He had seen the entire exchange and could not help but agree with Naruto's assessment about the Uchiha. He was weaker than he should be with a powerful bloodline like the Sharingan. He looked around some more and saw Hinata and her team walking to the third stair to reach the third floor but did nothing to stop them.

Tenten agreed with Neji and went to follow as he left the hall only to pause when Lee said, "You guess go ahead I'll catch up."

"Just don't be late," Tenten chided as the thick browed teenager ran off after Team 7.

Rock Lee soon caught up with Team 7 and called their attention to him, "Uchiha Sasuke, my name is Rock Lee I wish to test myself against a member of genius clan. Will you fight me?"

"You know who I am and still want to challenge me?" Sasuke replied. "Sure I'll fight you."

"Sasuke-kun we're going to be late," Sakura objected. Shikamaru just looked bored as usual.

"This won't take long," Lee said. He then blew a kiss at Sakura who did an overly dramatic display of dodging it. Lee sighed in sadness but quickly recovered turning to Sasuke stepping into his stance, "I should warn you, I am the strongest Gennin in Konoha

You don't stand a chance."

Sasuke smirked at the statement and dropped into his own stance. He was caught off guard by the speed Lee displayed in closing the distance. When performed the Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Whirlwind) he was totally unprepared and kicked in the cheek sending his rolling to the side. "No one is that fast!" Sasuke thought. "He must have used a Genjutsu." His smirk returned when said, "Sharingan. Now I'll see just what you did."

He charged Lee this time only to be surprised once again when side kicked him launching him into the air. Lee jumped up after him and was trailing him in his shadow where Sasuke could not counter. "Your eyes allow you see any of my movements. However if your body isn't fast enough then you can't avoid me. This fight is over, I've one." To emphases his point Lee took out a kunai and lightly jabbed the ring end into the small of Sasuke's back.

So stunned that he was outmatched Sasuke did not even bother to land properly and crashed to the ground. As soon as he was down Sakura was at his side helping him up. At the same time Shikamaru was busy calculating possible strategies to beat someone with Lee's speed.

"Lee," the four Gennin turned to see an older version Lee standing by the stairs. "I'm so proud of you!" the strange man yelled as he and Lee ran at each other and gave a disturbingly enthusiastic hug while crying their eyes out. "You have proven that you are the epitome of the Flames of Youth!"

Meanwhile Team 7's jaws were on the floor at the odd pair. "Just who are those freaks?" Sasuke wondered out loud.

Lee hearing this turned around shouting, "Don't make fun of Gai-sensei!"

"Lee that's enough," Gai said. "As for who I am," Gai paused dramatically before shouting, "I am Konoha's Proud Green Beast Maito Gai! The Eternal Rival of Hatake Kakashi!"

"You're Kakashi-sensei's rival?" Sakura asked.

"Correct," Gai answered. "In fact I'm stronger with 50 wins and 49 losses." That was when Gai displayed just how good he was. Before Team 7's very eyes he disappeared and reappeared next to Sasuke. "You should all get the Exam Room you don't want to be late." He turned back to Lee, "That goes for you too Lee!"

His student saluted and was about to take off but stopped for a brief moment, "I'm sorry for attacking you. But I wanted to test my growth for you see I lied about being the strongest Gennin in Konoha. The strongest Gennin in Konoha is however on my team. I hope you grow stronger because I would love to fight you again." Lee then jumped up to the third floor leaving a stunned Team 7 behind.

Ten minutes later Team 10 watched as the last of the Rookies enter the Exam Room. Team 8 entered just after Team 7 and announced their arrival with Ino giving Sasuke a big hug from behind. This did not sit well with Sakura and soon the two degraded into a shouting match that drew everyone in the room's attention.

"You Rookies should be quite," a silver haired Gennin from Konoha approached the nine. "Everyone's nervous about the exam. There's over two hundred hear and your shouting is putting them on edge."

"And how are you?" Kiba asked.

"I'm Kabuto," Kabuto answered. "This is my sixth time taking the Exam." He reached into his pouch and withdrew what looked like a deck of playing cards. "Tell you what since because you remind me of myself I'll help you out. These are my Nin-Info Cards. They have information on every Gennin taking the Exam. Just ask and I'll tell you everything I know about them."

"Tell me about Rock Lee from Konoha," Sasuke requested.

"Let's see," Kabuto searched the deck and withdrew the necessary card. "Rock Lee, he's a year older than you along with his teammates Hyuuga Neji Yakoso Tenten. his Ninjutsu and Genjutsu are non existent but his Taijutsu is off the scale. He and his team completed 23 D-Rank Missions and 12 C-Rank." He put the card away before asking, "Is there anyone else you want to know about?"

"Sabaku no Gaara from Suna," Hinata answered.

Kabuto nodded and located the card. "Sabaku no Gaara, I don't have a lot of information on him as this is his first Exam and is from another Village. His mission report is 20 D-class missions, 22 C-rank, and what's this 1 B-Rank. That's very rare for a Gennin. It also says he's never been injured on a mission. Looks like Suna sent their strongest Gennin this time. In fact all the Villages sent strong Teams. Well except for Oto, their new and aren't very strong."

The statement upset the three from Oto and decided to shut Kabuto up. The apparent leader of the group reached the silver haired Gennin first. He swung an arm that had a strange devise on it attempting to hit Kabuto in the face. Kabuto was able to dodge cleanly without getting hit. Everyone was shocked when Kabuto's glasses suddenly broke then a second later he dropped to his knees holding back the vomit from a sudden case of dizziness, "So that's how they attack," Kabuto thought.

Not far away Tenten asked Lee, "Did you see what happened? I thought he completely dodged the blow."

"He did," Lee answered. "There must be some kind of trick."

The Oto-nins were about to continue when a burst of smoke interrupted them. "You Bastards will sit down and shut up!" The entire room turned to the shout and saw it came from a large Jounin wearing a long trench coat and had several scars on his face. "You from Oto unless you want to be kicked out of the Exam then you will stop at once. There will be no fighting during the Exam unless given permission by the Examiner. And even then there will be no killing aloud. Anyone not obeying theses rules will be kicked out of the Exam."

One of the Oto-nins, the other male, sneered at the rules, "No killing. This place must be pretty soft. This Exam won't be much fun."

"We're sorry," the leader of the Oto Team said. "This is our first exam. We're just a little excited to be here that's all."

"Now that's out of the way we can begin," the scared man said. "My name is the Morino Ibiki and I'll be your first Examiner for the Chunin Exam. Come up to the front and hand in you're permission slips. Once you've done that we'll assign you a number and that is where you'll be sitting." The Gennin complied and soon everyone was in his or her assigned seat. Once everyone settled down Ibiki continued. "The first part of the Test will be a written test. It will be a deduction test, one point for each question. For every question you get wrong you loose a point. Cheating will not be tolerated; those that are caught will loose two points from the Exam. IF you're points fall to zero you will fail along with your team. Those that don't answer all the questions will also fail. If you are shinobi and have the right skills then this shouldn't be too difficult. You have one hour to complete the test beginning…" He waited for the clock to reach noon exactly before saying, "Now!"

The two hundred plus Gennin immediately flipped the their test sheets over and began to read the questions. As they read many started to become confused by the level of questions being asked. "What is the maximum number of targets that can be hit by one kunai when standing on your hands over water back to the targets with a wind speed of…" Hinata silently read the question. Deciding to skip that question she went on to read the others only to find they were even harder than the first question. "What kind of Gennin knows this?" she thought. "I doubt even Outosan (Father) could answer some of these." Hinata sat and thought for a minute, there had to be something more to this test than she was seeing. That was when the last instruction Ibiki said came back to her mind, "' If you are shinobi and have the right skills then this shouldn't be too difficult,' what skills was he talking about? Does he want us to cheat?" She then thought about the rules for a few moments before coming to her conclusion, "They do want us to cheat. Just not get caught at it. In that case…" she activated her Byakugan and quickly began scanning the room. She found she was not the only one to come to the same conclusion as many people were cheating. She scanned some more and found a person writing down answers even though he could have only looked at the questions for a few seconds. "That one." She proceeded to copy down the answers she saw.

Around the room several people were using various methods to cheat. Some ingenuous like the Team from Oto using sound of the pencils to copy what was being written, and some were pathetic like glancing at the person next to them. Those that were cheating with ingenious methods overlooked. Those that did not were having their points deducted. Soon various Chunin around the room began calling out the people that failed and the numbers in the room began to dwindle. Finally after forty-five minutes passed the time for the final question came. "Alright pencils down!" Ibiki announced. "I will now ask the final question. But before that there are some more rules you need to know about." Various people around the room gulped showing their nervousness at the news. "First you must decide if you are going to take the tenth question or not, if you decide not to take it you're score will be reduced to zero and you and your team will fail."

"Then of course we'll take the tenth question," one Gennin said.

"You did not let me finish," Ibiki said. "If you take the question and get it wrong you'll be a Gennin forever."

"But that's not fare!" another Gennin shouted.

"Who said being a Shinobi was fair!" Ibiki shouted. "This time you were unlucky and got me as your examiner. So those that have taken it before and failed don't get off like they usually do." Ibiki then became thoughtful for a moment, "If you don't want to risk it then you can simply leave. You'll only be barred from entering the Chunin Exam for a year instead of for the rest of your lives. The choice is yours."

For five minutes no one said anything. The longer it lasted the tenser the atmosphere became. That is until one Gennin could not take the pressure, "I give up. I can't take the risk."

"45 fail! 60 and 31 also fail!" Ibiki called and the three Gennins left the room. Soon several more people gave up and the room lost several more people. Those that were willing to risk the tenth question remained silent and still. After another five minutes only fifteen teams remained. "Well looks like all those who are going to quite have done so," Ibiki thought. He looked around and received nods from the Chunin in the room. "Since I looks like no one is going to give up I would like to say…" he paused savoring the anticipation, "Congratulations on passing the first part of the Exam."

The room was silent until Kiba shouted, "What about the Tenth Question?"

"The choice to take the last question was the question," Ibiki answered. "The life of a ninja is one of risk, especially for the high ranks. Those cowards that gave up couldn't even risk a simple question. What happens when their asked to risk their lives. No people like that don't deserve to be Chunins. One should always take a mission regardless of the risk that is how Villages survive. Sometimes one must be willing to put their village ahead of themselves."

"What about the first nine questions then?" a Gennin asked.

"They served their purpose," Ibiki answered. "The test was actually designed to see how well you could gather information. If you do it badly it can lead to the death of your Teammates because the information is either wrong or changed. Missions get completed because of good information, Villages survive because of missions completed and missions get completed by those willing to take the risk to carry them out." The Gennin could not help but agree with the scarred man. Every point he made was undeniably true. "I would like to wish you luck on…" Ibiki was cut off by the glass window suddenly breaking and a blur landing in front of him. "She's always impatient."

The blur stopped and revealed a dark haired woman standing in front of a banner saying, "The Second Examiner Mitarashi Anko." "No time to relax because the real hard part is about to begin!"

"You jumped the gun again, Anko," Ibiki stated from behind the banner.

Anko paid him no mind as she counted up the remaining Gennin, "Hhhmmm, fifteen teams remain." Anko turned to Ibiki, "That's on the high end for you Ibiki."

"Good crop this year," Ibiki said.

Anko gave a sinister smile, "Well they maybe good enough for you're test but for my part not even half will remain." The tension in the room that had dropped just moments ago now returned twice as thick at Anko's announcement. "You had all better be prepared, for now the real test begins."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The Chunin Exam had started three days ago and with no missions and his closest friends not around Naruto found he had nothing to do but train. He quickly grew tired of the Hyuuga Training Grounds and decided to train elsewhere. So left and went to one of the many forest training grounds around Konoha. It was here that he heard signs of a struggle and his curiosity got the getter of him and he left to investigate. What he saw greatly surprised him as he came upon a dark haired woman in a trench coat clutching her back at the base her neck in agony. He looked around carefully and just caught a glimpse of a person disappearing through the brush at the distance. Knowing that he could never catch up to the person that disappeared he approached the woman. "Hey you alright?" Naruto asked.

The woman was still breathing hard but the pain was fading from her face. "Yeah I'm fine," she took a look a Naruto for a moment then asked, "Do you know which way he went?"

"Yeah he took off that way," Naruto pointed off in the distance. "But he's probably long gone by now. He was moving fast even for a Jounin. Who was he anyway?"

"The Snake Sannin Orochimaru," the woman answered.

"Orochimaru?" Naruto asked. Everyone in Konoha had heard about the traitor that was once the student of the Sandaime. Naruto knew of him more than most because of all the time he spent around the Hokage. He had read about him in the many times when visited the Hokage's library so he knew how dangerous he was, "Glad I didn't try and go after him," Naruto thought. "We should report this to the Hokage."

The woman was about to respond but before she could a squad of Anbu landed next to her, "Anko, we have witnesses claiming that Orochimaru has been spotted in the vicinity," the lead Anbu reported.

"You just missed him by a few minutes," Anko reported. He saw the Anbu tense and was about to ask which way he went. "Don't bother, he's long gone by now. We need to report this to the Hokage," she then turned to Naruto who was observing with veiled curiosity. If Anko had not been a Jounin she would have thought he was not paying attention. "Too bad he was never allowed to enter the Academy, he would have been a good shinobi." She then turned to an Anbu wearing a crow mask, "Take Uzumaki Naruto back to the Hyuuga Compound with Orochimaru in the area we can not take any chances."

Naruto could almost feel the scowl from the Anbu. "He's not even a Gennin he's of no consequence. In fact this area is for shinobi training, civilians aren't allowed here. He should be taken into custody for trespassing."

It did not take a genius to figure out that the Anbu in the crow mask was one of the people that resent Naruto. Anko frowned at the Anbu for both the insubordination too her orders and his attitude towards Naruto. She knew better than most about being treated harshly for something a person had no control over. She was about to reprimand the Anbu but another Anbu of the group spoke first. "I'll take him back," the Anbu member that was wearing a lizard mask spoke up. "As he is the Ward of the Hyuuga, it is my duty to ensure his safety." The Anbu that spoke made it clear he was a member of the Hyuuga Clan, though which House was impossible to tell, and he held Naruto with respect. It was also easy to tell he was glaring at the Anbu in the crow mask for his clear dislike to Naruto.

"Fine go we need to report to the Hokage," Anko said. "And when you get there have Hiashi-sama report to the Hokage." The Anbu and the Naruto nodded and jumped off through the trees in the direction of the Hyuuga Compound. She then turned the crow Anbu, "Once we are finished reporting to the Hokage you and I will have a talk about your attitude regarding my orders." The Anbu winced behind his mask, it was common knowledge that it was not a good idea to get on Anko's bad side and the he just did.

It only took a few minutes for Naruto and his Anbu escort to reach the Hyuuga Compound. When they did a pair of Branch House members greeted them. "Naruto-san, what has happened?" one of them said. "Why are you being escorted by an Anbu?"

"There has been an incident," the Anbu reported. "I am not at liberty to say what at this time and neither is Uzumaki-san but it involved Special Jounin Mitarashi Anko and he was found with her. Now I must escort Hiashi-sama to see the Hokage."

"Understood," the second Branch Member said. "Naruto-san go with Kenshiro and I shall retrieve Hiashi-sama." Naruto nodded and bowed to the Anbu in thanks for the escort then entered the Compound.

Inside the Main House section of the Compound, Naruto waited with his guardian Hizashi for the Head of the Hyuuga Clan to return. Not more than fifteen minutes of waiting he entered the room, his face grim. "What is wrong?" Hizashi asked.

"Orochimaru has infiltrated the Chunin Exam," Hiashi answered. Hizashi's eyes widened showing his surprise. "He has apparently targeted Uchiha Sasuke and according to the report by Anko he has placed his Curse Seal on him."

"Why has the Chunin Exam not been canceled?" Hizashi asked.

"For now the Chunin Exam will continue," Hiashi repeated what he was told. "Orochimaru has threatened to attack if the Exam in interrupted and as you know we are not at one hundred percent because of the War and the loss of the Uchiha Clan." Hizashi nodded if Konoha was attacked before they could prepare the results would be devastating. "Hokage-sama believes that the only reason he has not attacked yet is because he wants to see how well Uchiha will fair."

"Then the question is not if Orochimaru will attack but when?" Hizashi said.

"What about Hinata and Neji?" Naruto asked showing his concern for his friends.

"Hokage-sama has assured that both their teams have already arrived at the center of the Training Area 44," Hiashi answered. "Do not worry they are fine." Naruto showed his relief with a smile.

"So what shall we do in the mean time?" Hizashi asked.

"For now the Village will prepare for the coming fight," Hiashi said. "Only Chunin and above will know the plans. Naruto, you are only hearing this because you were the one who found Anko first thus making you involved in the incident. You are not to discuss this with anyone not even Neji and Hinata. It is better for them that they do not know. For now they should concentrate on the Exam."

"Yes Hiashi-sama," Naruto said. He did not like keeping his friends in the dark but he would not disobey an order from a man he respected as much as the Hokage.

The next day Naruto left the Hyuuga Compound early in the morning. The Hiashi and Hizashi had a meeting with the Hokage to discuss the Konoha's defenses so they were already gone by the time Naruto even woke up. Knowing that there would be trouble on the horizon Naruto decided that he would step up his training. That meant he had to devise a new training regiment that would allow him to progress quickly. He had an idea but would need specific supplies to accomplish it. That was why he was heading towards an equipment shop that specialized in unusual orders.

When he arrived he entered and started browsing the displays he was looking for. He found what he was looking for in the rare and expensive part of the shop near the back. What he was looking for was a creation from a small village called Raimei (Thunder) Village. It was located on a small island nation off the coast of Cloud Country. The item was like an Explosive Note but instead of producing an explosion it created a burst of electricity giving it the name Shock Tag.

The Shock Tag was a rather brilliant invention in that the amount of electricity that was stored in the note could be released in a controlled manner. From short bursts to all at once. This feature made the Shock Tag useful for many application, from torture to traps to even a power source; in fact Shock Tags powered all of the Raimei Village's lights. They were rare in Konoha because of the distance needed to travel, thus making them expensive.

"Hello, may I help you?" the owner of the store asked. He was an old merchant that settled in Konoha about ten years ago so he never knew about Kyuubi being in Naruto, thus making him on good terms with the boy. Now the old merchant used his old contacts in the various countries to get hard to achieve items so he could make out a relaxed but full lifestyle in his old age. "Oh hello Naruto I didn't recognize you at first. My eyesight must slipping."

"Hey Koren," Naruto greeted. "And you can help me by getting me those Shock Tags."

Koren did not even question if Naruto had the money needed for the Shock Tags, being a Ward of the Hyuuga Clan had that privilege. Instead he asked, "You bought one a few weeks ago right?"

"Yeah worked just like you said it would," Naruto answered. "And they're just what I need."

"Of course they worked," Koren seemed indignant, "I only deal in the highest quality merchandise. Now how many do you need?"

"I'll need twenty for what I have planned," Naruto answered.

"Twenty?" Koren asked caught off guard. "What are you doing preparing for war?"

"Yes actually," Naruto thought. Out loud he said, "No just doing an experiment and I'll need a lot to pull it off."

Koren sighed, "Alright I'll sell them too you, but just like every other time you get one of your ideas I'm not responsible."

"Understood," Naruto replied. Koren nodded and handed Naruto the twenty Shock Tags, "Just charge the cost to my tab, you'll get the usual payment by the end of the week."

"Yeah sure kid," Koren said, "Just don't go killing yourself with this experiment."

"Don't worry I won't," Naruto said as he waved goodbye.

Once he was out of the store he went to a training ground close by and got started. The first thing he did was set the Shock Tag to release a steady but low voltage current. The Tags had a finite amount of electricity and only a person who knew how to make them could 'recharge' them. But at this voltage the Tags would last several weeks even if they were used all day. Next Naruto placed one tag on his fore arm and activated it. He quickly felt the electricity coursing through his arm causing his muscles to twitch ever so slightly. "Alright it works!" Naruto exclaimed. He then placed the rest of the Shock Tags all over his body; one on each forearm, one on each upper arm and shoulders, one on each calf front and back, the same with his shins, one on each side of his chest and two more on his stomach, and the last two he placed on his lower back.

After getting used to the strange feeling from the low voltage coursing through his body, Naruto started to do light exercises and slow katas so he did not over exert himself. Normally with Naruto's stamina it took hours of a heavy workout to tire him out, this work out only took him two hours. After those two hours Naruto deactivated the Shock Tags to let his muscles rest. When he did the fatigue hit him like a strike from a Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) palm, only all over his body. "Guess I over did it again," Naruto muttered before dropping to the ground and taking an impromptu nap.

When Naruto opened his eyes he noted that it was now in the early afternoon. That meant that he had slept for more than a day, highly unlikely, or he only slept for a few hours. When he tried to move he found his muscles were still sore because of the new type of workout. Knowing that a nice soak in a hot bath would really help out his body Naruto decided to head to a bath house not too far away.

Once he arrived he entered the men's section and relaxed into the hot water and closed his eyes. For a short amount of time Naruto was alone but soon heard someone else enter and take a seat directly across from him. Naruto paid the new comer no mind as he was not bothering him. That is until the new comer started to laugh softly every now and then. When Naruto opened his eyes he saw a large man with long spiky white hair leaning against the fence with his back to Naruto. "What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

The large man turned around just long enough to whisper, "Be quiet, I have work to do." He turned back around and resumed his soft laughing.

Naruto started at the guy in confusion. Not because he did not understand what he was doing for he did, as Naruto saw the small hole in the fence when the man turned. No, what was confusing Naruto was that he could swore that he had met this man before. It was when the man said, "Oh my new book is going to be a masterpiece," that Naruto finally remembered where he met him…

Naruto was eight years old and was studying inside the Hokage's Private Library when he heard noise from the other room. Being a curious boy Naruto went to see what the noise was. What he found was the Hokage talking with another man that looked to be in his mid to late forties. "Sensei I finally got my book Icha Icha (Come Come) Paradise published!" the stranger said. "And I wanted you to have the first issue seeing as you would enjoy it and understand the true genius of my masterpiece!"

"Thank you Jiraiya," the Hokage said with a light redness to his face. He took the book and started to read only to have his face become redder the longer he read. "I think I'll read the rest later."

Wondering what was going on Naruto asked, "Hokage-sama who's this and what was that book he just gave you?"

"How can you not know who I am?" the man asked. He started to do a rather strange dance, "I am Mt. Myobokugama's Holy Master Sennin, also known as the Kaeru-Sannin (Toad Hermit) Jiraiya!" Naruto looked very confused at the dance and the introduction. Jiraiya disregarded the look and went on to explain his book, "Why I just gave the old man here…"

"Now, now Jiraiya, I don't you think he's quite ready for that yet," the Hokage said quickly.

"I guess you're right, Sensei," Jiraiya said. "He is a bit young to truly understand what my work is about."

The fact that the Jiraiya was calling the Hokage 'Sensei' and they were discussing what the Hokage was given being to advanced for Naruto led the blonde boy to believe it was a book with advanced jutsus. Naruto always wanting to read about new jutsus decided he would take a look at that book.

So the next day when the Hokage had left for a meeting Naruto snuck into his Office and found the little orange book in the top drawer and retrieved the book. After he started to read it he became very confused, as he had never seen anything like this before. There were drawings of what looked like grappling positions so he thought maybe it was a Taijutsu manual. Wanting to figure it out he went to the best Taijutsu users he knew to ask question, namely Hiashi and Hizashi…

Naruto's anger started to rise at the memory. That night when he got back to the Hyuuga Compound and asked the twin brothers to explain the book he was subjected to the most embarrassing night of his young life. For that night they gave the young Naruto, the Talk. For a week poor Naruto could not look at any girl without turning very red. It was the night of the Talk that Naruto promised to pay the man, namely Jiraiya, back for that embarrassment.

So with his anger rising Naruto's chakra began to flow rapidly. So rapidly in fact that the Seal on his stomach became visible. "Hey you old man!" Naruto said loudly.

Jiraiya turned to silence the kid behind him again but stopped from saying anything when he saw that Seal. "The Kyuubi Kid?" Jiraiya thought. Any other thoughts were cut off when Naruto rose out of the water and ran on top of it and delivered a very strong punch to Jiraiya's face knocking him into the women's side of the bath house.

The resulting screams of women followed by the sounds and screams of a man getting beaten were enough of vengeance for Naruto, at least for now. "That'll show the old pervert. Kami that night was so embarrassing!" Naruto decided that he had enough of the bathhouse and left to return to his training.

As Naruto left the bathhouse Jiraiya observed him from his hiding spot. "He's certainly grown up since the last time I saw him." He rubbed his chin massaging the pain away, "And it looks like he's learned Impact rather well. I wonder how strong he really is?"


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The Second portion of the Chunin Exam was now complete. The last team to arrive was Team 7. Said team, from the various injuries they had, looked like they were put through a Jounin level obstacle course. It was clear that they were almost dead on their feet. Team 7 arrived had arrived literally with no time to spare and as such they were forced into the main chamber of the tower and took up positions with the other Gennin that arrived. Under a large statue displaying an **ohitsuji (ram) seal was all the Jounin Sensei's of the Gennin teams as well as the Sandaime Hokage. **

**The Sandaime Hokage stepped forward and thought about the ones that made it so far. "Over half of the Gennin that made it are from Konoha, and out of them all the Rookie Nine managed to pass. Looks like this age group has more potential than we first realized." "On behalf of Konoha and your Jounin Sensei's I would like to offer my congratulations on passing the second part of the Chunin Exam," the Hokage said. "You have all done exceptionally well to make it this far and you should all feel proud of yourselves."**

**At this point a late arrival appeared in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared a sickly looking Konoha Jounin was revealed kneeling before the Hokage. "Forgive my tardiness Hokage-sama," the Jounin said. The Hokage waved off the apology and the Jounin continued, "If you will allow I shall explain the rest."**

**"Yes please proceed," the Hokage replied.**

**The Jounin rose and turned to the Chunin hopefuls. "I am Gekkou Hayate and I'll be you're third Examiner." He coughed through his announcement drawing worried looks from some of the Gennin. "From here on you will be tested individually in one-on-one matches. Unfortunately there are too many that passed and we have to hold some preliminaries before hand."**

**"And why do we have to do that?" Kiba asked.**

**"There are important people that are Village clients that come for the Chunin Exam," Hayate answered. "They cannot be bothered with too many matches so we must lower the participants for the main matches." Once again his speech was clogged with coughs, "Now for what will decide your fates," the statue and the wall behind slid open and reviled a display board, "This will randomly select your names and pair you up for the preliminary matches. Now before we start I wish to ask if there is anyone who wishes to withdraw, your team will not be penalized."**

**"I give up," Kabuto said raising his hand. "I'm not feeling to well."**

**Hayate nodded and Kabuto was dismissed. He looked around and saw no one else wanted to give up he continued, "Now let us begin," the display board ran through the twenty or so names until it stopped on two, "Would Hyuuga Hinata and **Akadou Yoroi please remain and the rest clear the floor."

The two Gennins remained as everyone began to leave the area. As they were leaving Sakura cast a worried glance at Sasuke, as he was hold the strange mark at the base of his neck. She was wanted to tell her sensei what happened but Sasuke ordered her not too. When she passed Shikamaru she noticed he still had not moved from where he was standing, "Shikamaru?" When she approached she noticed the lazy shadow manipulator had fallen asleep standing up, "No wonder he didn't try and give up." In her mind Inner Sakura yelled, "HOW LAZY DOES A PERSON HAVE TO BE TO FALL ASLEEP STANDING UP?" When she poked him awake she decided to add, "You missed you're chance to give up."

If Shikamaru showed more emotion than boredom his face would have displayed real annoyance. Instead he just sighed, "It was too troublesome to stay awake." He dragged his feet up the stairway but took noticed that Kakashi took Sasuke aside and started to talk to him.

"Sasuke when your name is called you will be allowed to fight," Kakashi whispered. "How ever if you use too much chakra it spread and if it does even once I will stop the fight." Sasuke looked surprised to see the Kakashi knew about the Curse Seal on his neck. "After your match I'll take you aside and we'll deal with it in private."

Back on the arena floor Hinata stepped into her Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) stance as her cloak covered opponent dropped into his own. When Hayate saw they were ready he announced, "Begin!"

Immediately Yoroi made several quick hand seals and his right hand started to glow with chakra. Most of the people from Konoha knew the prowess of the Hyuuga Clan in Taijutsu and at close range. So they were greatly surprised to see Yoroi, who was one of the Konoha Gennins, charge Hinata. Hinata easily avoided the swipe with the non-glowing hand and countered with a quick jab at the older Gennin's arm forcing it to fall limp.

What caught her by surprise was the speed of the Yoroi's right hand that was jammed into her stomach. She felt a slight burn and a sudden loss of strength before she jumped away to reassess her opponent. When was far enough away she focused her Byakugan on the hand that touched her and was surprised to see traces of her chakra in the hand. "Noticed it didn't you," Yoroi said. "Some of your chakra is now in me. Chakra Kyuuin no Jutsu (chakra absorption) drains away your chakra and gives it to me. Jyuuken is useless if you have no chakra."

Up on the balcony Kurenai's team was worried about Hinata. They did not think anyone could discover an effective strategy to counter Jyuuken but it appeared Yoroi did. Without the chakra aspects of the Hyuuga Clan Taijutsu the hits were nothing more than slaps and that would never be able to defeat anyone. "How's Hinata going to get out of this?" Noa asked.

"COME ON HINATA KICK HIS ASS!" Kiba yelled.

"Don't worry Hinata will do just fine," Kurenai assured.

Close by Neji smirked knowing that Hinata would win. Jyuuken made the entire Hyuuga Clan masters at manipulating chakra so getting around this obstacle was not a problem. She may not be as talented as he was but with her hard work Hinata proved very capable at their Taijutsu. Now it was only a matter of how she would defeat her opponent.

Hinata merely shifted her stance tightening up giving her a greater defensive position. She already had a play on how to defeat Yoroi so all she had to do was wait for him to come to her. Fortunately she did not have to wait long as Yoroi charged at her with his chakra absorbing hand thrust out. When it looked like the hand was about to make contact with Hinata, again she surprised many people by spinning on one foot completely avoiding the hand and having Yoroi sail right past her. When Hinata was behind him she immediately struck the base of his skull with her middle and forefinger with each hand causing the black clad Konoha shinobi to drop to the ground like a wet sack.

"Well that was rather anticlimactic," Kakashi said from behind his book.

"That being said it was a rather efficient maneuver," Asuma countered. "She disabled her opponent quite easily without revealing too much of her skill. She'll definitely be one to watch in the Finals."

"Wow I knew Hinata was good but I didn't think she was that good," Sakura said to Ino.

"Yeah, I'm glad I didn't have to face her," Ino agreed to her rival. "Good thing she's not interested in Sasuke-kun," Ino thought.

As Hinata made her way up the stairs and was congratulated by her team, "Good job Hinata," Noa said.

"Yeah you totally kicked his ass!" Kiba joined in with Akamaru barking his agreement.

"Very well done Hinata," Kurenai congratulated.

Around the room the teams from the other Villages were eyeing the Hyuuga Heiress with caution. They knew that the Hyuuga were among the most gifted Clan in Konoha, and the display of skill only reinforced their reputation. Hinata had used just enough of her abilities to put them on edge but not enough for anyone to get a real look at her true skill level. And the fact that some were told that the strongest Gennin in Konoha was another Hyuuga made them uneasy at the idea of facing him.

Back on the floor Hayate announced the next two names that came up, "Aburame Shino and Gin Noa please come down."

Shino gave no other response then nodding towards Asuma and Chouji and completely ignored Ino. His sensei and plump teammate knew why, Ino made a comment about hating bugs during the introduction and Shino took it personally. Noa on the other hand looked nervous as he descended the stairs. After the Uchiha Massacre the Aburame Clan became the second most feared Clan in Konoha after the Hyuuga Clan. The reassuring pat on his back from Kurenai did not really help much.

Once the Gennins were on the floor Hayate called for the match to begin. Neither boy did anything off at first. Shino just silently with his hands in his coat pockets while Noa reached for the kunai pouch on his leg. As soon as his hand touched the ring on the kunai Noa quickly flicked his other hand out and two shurikens came racing out of his palm.

Though he did not show it Shino was caught off guard because of the ruse. He was a bit delayed in avoiding the second shuriken and it grazed his left shoulder. Decided to retaliate by pulling out his hands and release some of his bugs out of his sleeves. The small swarm of bugs began to circle their human nest and he started to close in on Noa.

Noa ran through six hand seals saying, "Ninpo: Roku **Joushi No Jutsu (Ninja Art: Six Arms)." His arms started to blur and suddenly there were triple the number of arms before. When Shino was close enough Noa struck out with his three right hands. Shino went to block the blow to his head but the hand passed right through and the lower hand landed in the gut sending Shino staggering back.**

**Up with the teams Kakashi looked up from his book, "That's an interesting Genjutsu. Making false arms to throw off your opponent."**

**"Noa's primary weakness is his Taijutsu," Kurenai replied. "So I gave him a way of having more to have more hands his opponent had to avoid."**

**"Not bad," Asuma said. "But not good enough, Shino just one this match."**

**Asuma's prediction appeared to be true as the Genjutsu that produced Noa's extra arms faded from view. "When you hit me with your punch, some of my bugs transferred to you. They are currently eating away at your chakra, you'll be unconscious soon unless you give up."**

**Noa knew he was beat with every passing second he could feel his body weaken. "O…okay you win…I give up," he panted.**

**"Winner Aburame Shino," Hayate said with a cough.**

**When the two Konoha Gennin reached their teams Chouji smiled to Shino and gave him some sugar for his bugs and Asuma nodded in satisfaction of a job well done, Ino took a step back not wanting the bugs to get on her. Noa received sympathy from Hinata and Kurenai and a promise from Kiba that he would get Shino back when he won his match.**

**Up on the electric board the next two names appeared, "Sabaku no Temari and Tsuchi Kin." The two kunoichi's looked at each other sizing them up both deciding the same thing. Their match was going to be very easy. When arrived on the ground floor Hayate began the match with a cough.**

**Kin made the first move by throwing several senbon needles at Temari. Her plan was to use the bells on the senbon needles to create a Genjutsu that attacked the ears. Unfortunately for her the last thing a person should do against a Suna shinobi that specialized using a battle fan was to use throwing weapons.**

**This fact was brought home when Temari pulled the fan off her back and unfurled it. With a mighty swing and a call, "Ninpo Fuusajin! (Dust Wind)." A large gust of wind blew the senbon needles away. "You that's a rather pathetic attack. Here try one of mine." She opened her fan even more and swung it towards Kin, "Ninpo: Fuusajin!" Kin was hit by a gale force winds and slamming her into the wall knocking her out.**

**"Winner Sabaku no Temari," Hayate said as medic-nins carried Kin out of the room. The next pair of names soon came up, "Nara Shikamaru and Yoshiki Tenten please come down."**

**"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru complained. "Why do I have to fight a woman? Maybe I should just give up, it'll be less troublesome."**

"You might as well go down Shikamaru," Kakashi said from his behind his book. "You can't give up from up here."

Tenten overheard Shikamaru's comments made her angry. She hated when guys thought a girl could not be a good ninja. "I'm going kill him for that!" Tenten thought.

"TENTEN SHOW ALL THESE PEOPLE YOUR YOUTHFUL FIRE!" Gai yelled. He turned to Kakashi, "My student Tenten will defeat you student Shikamaru! If she doesn't I will run around Konoha thirty times on my hands with my eyes closed!"

"YES GAI-SENSEI IS THE BEST!" Lee yelled like his mentor. "TENTEN SHOW THAT GAI-SENSEI IS THE GREATES SENSEI IN KONOHA!"

"You say something Gai?" Kakashi asked. Causing the green clad Jounin to slump in sadness.

"Oh my hip rival is so cool with his nonchalant attitude," moaned Gai.

"Don't worry Gai-sensei he's just jealous of your stylish clothes," Lee assured his bigger counterpart.

"OH LEE!" Gai started to cry.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee mimicked Gai. The two continued to say each other's name several more times as they hugged each other.

As the Gai and his look-a-like cried and hugged one another the other members of Team Gai showed their embarrassment. Neji pinched the bridge of his nose trying to lessen the headache that was forming. Tenten stiffly walked down the stairs red in the face muttering, "I don't them, they are not with me. I don't know them, they are not with me," over and over again. It was too bad that everyone knew she was a part of the team.

When she finally reached the floor Shikamaru was standing in a slouched posture with looking completely bored. Hayate looked even sicker than normal but that could be attributed to the fact that he looked up at the disturbing display from Gai and Lee. "Nara Shikamaru vs. Yoshiki Tenten, Begin!"

Shikamaru was about to put up his hand and say that he quit except Tenten did not give him a chance. She was still angry about Shikamaru's attitude towards women and very embarrassed by her sensei and teammate. She had a lot of frustration to work through and Shikamaru was the target. From her kunai and shuriken holder on her leg and hip pouch from her back she took out a total of twelve throwing instruments and flung them at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru eyes widened in fear as the lethal projectiles sailed towards him. He was lucky that he had a form of training in avoiding thrown objects. The training consisted of him avoiding things his mother threw at him to get him off his rear end. So he was able to avoid every single shuriken and kunai Tenten threw. "This is so troublesome," Shikamaru muttered. He tried once again to give up but could not get the chance as more kunai and shuriken was thrown at him.

"This guys really starting to piss me off!" Tenten thought. It had been months since the last time she missed with a single weapon much less every one she threw. When Shikamaru started to run to the other side of the fighting area she became even more frustrated. "He's not even fighting back!" She reached into her pouch and instead of a weapon this time she with drew a small scroll, "Lets see how you like this?" She started to unroll the scroll and sliced her finger indicating it was some kind of summoning scroll. She was about to spread her bloodied thumb across the writing in the scroll when suddenly her entire body froze.

"Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation)" Shikamaru said at the other end of the fighting area. "You're such a troublesome girl, almost as troublesome as Sakura."

"I'LL GET HIM FOR THAT!" Inner Sakura roared. Sakura herself asked, "Kakashi-sensei how did Shikamaru get his shadow all the way to Tenten?"

"He used the shadows of the on the wall to extend his shadow to her," Kakashi said with a smile behind his mask.

"TENTEN DON'T GIVE UP!" Lee shouted. "USE YOUR BURNING YOUTH TO ESCAPE!"

Needless to say Lee's advice did not help Tenten at all. Shikamaru started to walk toward the center of the fighting area and Tenten copied his actions. When they were back in their original places Shikamaru suddenly turned and started walking backwards. Everyone was confused by the action, no more so then Tenten. She wondered just what her lazy opponent was doing. Another turn had Tenten facing the stairs and more movement had her ascending the stairs back to the viewing area.

Down in the fighting area Shikamaru released his jutsu and sat down on the ground tired from the drain on his chakra. Hayate could not help but smirk at his actions, "Due to Yoshiki Tenten's leaving the combat area I declare the winner of this match Nara Shikamaru."

Most of the Gennins watching the match had their mouths on the floor after the announcement. Of all the ways to loose a match that had to be the most pathetic they had ever seen. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN HE WINS!" Tenten yelled. "LET AT THAT LAZY BUMB I'LL KILL HIM FOR THAT!"

"My decisions are final," Hayate said. "Now please leave the floor the next match is about to be called." Shikamaru sighed at the venom being directed at him as he ascended the stairs as far away from Tenten as possible, he did not want to be killed it would be too troublesome in his opinion.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Hayate looked on as the remaining names cycled along once again. After a few seconds the names stopped. "Would Uchiha Sasuke and Inuzuka Kiba please come down?"

Up on the observation area Sakura was cheering on her teammate and crush, "You can do it Sasuke-kun! Show that flee bitten mutt who's the best!"

Shikimaru looked at the two and just sighed, "My team is so troublesome." He then slumped down onto the ground and tried to fall asleep. Who ever one the next set of matches was of no concern to him.

Near by Kiba was proudly yelling, "Alright Akamaru! We can finally show that stuck up jerk, Sasuke who's the best!" The small puppy wagged his tail and barked in agreement with his master.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Kiba," Kurenai advised. "Remember don't claim victory before you actually have it."

"Kurenai-sensei is right Kiba," Noa added. "Uchiha-san is still considered one of the strongest Gennins in the Village."

Kiba snorted at Noa, "Don't worry about me. I'll kick his ass!"

"Good luck Kiba," Hinata said. She had taken a glance at Sasuke and discovered that there was something off about this Chakra Circulatory System. The truly strange part about it was that it seemed to both hinder and enhance Sasuke at the same time. "There is something off about him. I'm not sure what but there is something definitely wrong."

"Stop worrying," Kiba brushed off yet another warning from his team. "I'll be fine." 

As Kiba walked down the stairs with Akamaru in tow Kurenai shook her head. "He's overconfident, that will cause him to lose this fight more than anything else."

At the other stair well Kakashi whispered to his student, "Remember Sasuke, if the Curse Seal spreads even just a little, I will step in and stop the match." Sasuke paused but nodded anyway, though with great reluctance.

Once Sasuke arrived at the fighting area Hayate began the match. Kiba wasted no time and immediately through his Clan's special Soldier Pill to Akamaru. The puppy ate it and his fur quickly turned red. With a flash of a few hand seals Kiba said, "Juujin Bushin (Beast Clone)." A burst of smoke later and Akamaru had changed into an exact copy of Kiba. The pair then charged the Uchiha with surprising speed and slammed him into the wall at the far end of the fighting area.

"When did Kiba get so strong?" Sasuke wondered as he struggled to stand. Sasuke started to flash through his own hand seals. At the last hand seal he felt the Curse Seal pulsate throwing off his control just slightly. He still released his jutsu, "Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Fire Element: Grand Fireball)," the result of the disruption of his control caused the normally massive fireball to be only at half size.

Kiba and Akamaru were easily able to dodge the undersized jutsu. "Ha! That the best you can do?" Kiba taunted. "Come on Akamaru lets finish this!" The two Kiba's started to charge once again. The difference this time was at the half waypoint the started spinning like a tornado, "Gatsuuga! (Piercing Fang)." The dual attack slammed into Sasuke back into the wall a second time.

Sasuke dropped to the ground and could feel at least one of his ribs was broken. "How can I be losing?" his mind screamed at him. His frustration caused the Curse Seal to pulse once again forcing more pain to shoot through his body. It was all Sasuke could do to keep it from spreading. Through the pain Sasuke tried to think of a way to beat Kiba without using his chakra. When he looked at the observers he focused on Lee and a plan started to form. "Taijutsu that's the key," Sasuke thought. "Now all I have to do is determine which Kiba is the real one. For that I'll need…" Sasuke closed his eyes, when the opened again a second later they were blood read with two comma like marks around the pupil. "…Sharingan." Do to his fatigue and the Curse Seal the Doujutsu did not last more than a moment. But it was enough to discern which Kiba was the real one. "All I have to do know is wait for him to come." Sasuke did not have to wait long as Kiba and his duplicate charged once again. To the surprise of everyone there Sasuke met the charge. When the last Uchiha was close enough he dropped down and kicked his leg straight up launching the original Kiba into the air.

"Hey isn't that my…?" Lee asked recognizing the maneuver.

Back in the ring Sasuke launched himself into the air and followed Kiba in his shadow. "Now it's all original," Sasuke announced. At the apex of the jump he started to deliver blow after blow continuation the attack all the way back to the ground. With a final spinning kick and a cry of, "Shishi Rendan! (Lion Combo)."

With Kiba unconscious Hayate called, "Winner Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke hearing he won the match immediately dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Kakashi quickly appeared next to him, picked him up and took him away from the fighting area.

After everyone settle down from the excitement of the last match, in other words when Ino and Sakura stopped yelling praises for Sasuke. The board started to cycle through the remaining names once again. When it finally stopped the names displayed were, Subaku no Kankuro and Tsurugu Misumi.

"Don't mess up Kankuro," Temari said.

"This will be a piece of cake," Kakuro assured.

The man that was Kabuto's teammate overheard the casual dismissal and sneered at the Suna (Sand) Team. When the fighters reached Hayate's location the sickly Jounin called for the match to begin.

Before either combatant started Misumi started to speak, "You shouldn't have insulted me. I would have given you a chance to give up, but now I'll enjoy shattering your bones."

"Heh, you're funny if you think you can beat me," Kankuro said. "Just shut up and fight so I can get this waste of time over with."

Misumi growled at Kankuro and threw several kunai at him. Kankuro jumped out of the way and started to shoot out several Chakra Strings from his fingers. When the strings of energy caught the man by the foot Kankuro gave a pull with all his strength causing the man's foot to be pulled out from under him. As soon as Misumi fell to the ground Kankuro charged in rearing back his fist and then tried to punch the downed shinobi. Misumi had just enough time to block Kankuro's punch and grab his arm. "Now you loose," Misumi said. There was a loud cracking sound from joints popping as Misumi's body suddenly became like a snake's. Leading his arms Misumi was able to coil around Kakuro like a snake and started to constrict his entire body, "I'm going to enjoy listening to your bones snap."

Instead of a snapping sound however a crumbling sound was heard. To Misumi's surprise Kankuro's face started to crack and fall away revealing a wooden face underneath. "Looks like you caught the wrong target," Kankuro's voice said from inside the bundle. "You made the mistake of capturing Karasu, let me show you the just how big of an error." The puppet's mouth and limbs suddenly popped open and several large needles pierced Misumi's body. "Each of the needles has enough poison to kill horse, you'll be dead in seconds." No sooner then he finished Misumi's body started to convulse and lose tension and then unwrap from Karasu as it fell to the ground.

"Winner Subaku no Kankuro," Hayate said as the Medic-nins came and carried Misumi's body away.

The names cycled yet again and this time names displayed were, Hyuuga Neji and Abumi Zaku. When Lee and Gai saw Neji's name appear they started to yell at the top of their lungs, "YES! NOW MY STUDENT! PROVE TO EVERYONE HERE THAT YOU'RE IN THE SPRING TIME OF YOUR YOUTH!" Gain began.

"NEJI MY ENTERNAL RIVAL DEFEAT THIS OPPONENT SO THAT WE MAY FACE ONE ANOTHER IN THE FINALS!" Lee yelled his encouragement.

Meanwhile Tenten was muttering, "Why did I have to be put on a team with those two?" The rest of the shinobi inched away from Gai and Lee as they started into their hugging scene, even Gaara seemed a little disturbed by the display of affection.

Neji all but ignored the odd pair and focused on his up coming match. He like everyone else took notice of Zaku's arm in the sling. Unlike everyone else, except Hinata that is, Neji had the Byakugan and was able to tell that the arm was perfectly fine. "He thinks I'll be through off guard when he uses his other hand," Neji thought. "I can use that to my advantage. I just need to get close enough to do it."

When the two Gennin were ready Hayate began the match. Zaku seeing what happened to the last person that got to close to a Hyuuga jumped backwards to give himself more room. "You Hyuuga's are the best at close range combat," Zaku said. "So I'll just stay back here." He brought his free arm up and called out, "Zankuuha! (Air Slicing Blast)." A jet of air raced out of Zaku's hand directly towards Neji.

Neji at this point had two options, use the Kaiten or he could dodge. At the rate of air was moving Neji would not have enough time to dodge all of the jutsu and would get partially injured. On the other hand if he revealed his Kaiten now, the others might be able to anticipate it in the later matches. With this in mind Neji dodged to the side as the Zankuuha rushed passed him, clipping his right arm. "I need to get in close," Neji thought. With his Byakugan activated Neji knew that Zaku was preparing another Zankuuha. "Just have to wait for it."

"Zankuuha!" Zaku called out again. This time the air blast completely missed Neji as the Hyuuga Prodigy jumped up and connected to the wall with his Chakra.

Running along the wall Neji used the time Zaku needed to prepare another Zankuuha to close the distance. Zaku tried to get away but Neji trained with Gai and Lee, while not as fast as they were he was fast enough to close the distance between him and Zaku before the Oto-nin could finish collecting enough pressurized air for the Zankuuha. With several quick taps Neji closed several of Zaku's inner coils stopping the jutsu for quite some time. "You can no longer use that arm," Neji said. "You have just lost."

"I don't think so!" Zaku said bring up his other arm. Everyone, but Hinata, on the observation point were surprised as they thought that arm was useless. "Zankuuh-Aaaaaa!" Zaku screamed as his arm blew apart as he tried to release his jutsu.

"What just happened?" Sakura asked.

It was Hinata that answered, "Neji-nisan knew that both his arms were just fine. And also knew that he would use his other arm as a surprise tactic if the need arose. When Neji-nisan closed the inner coils of the free arm he also damaged the mechanism in the other arm that allowed the air pressure to gather. When the Oto-nin tried to use the damaged mechanism cause a build up in pressure that…"

"That cause that guy's arm to blow up," Ino finished.

At this point Kakashi returned, "Yo did I miss something?"

"MY ENTERNAL RIVAL YO U HAVE JUST MISSED MY STUDENT NEJI DEFEATING HIS ENEMY IN A DISPLAY OF TRULY YOUTHFUL GLORY!" Gai yelled proudly.

"You say something Gai?" Kakashi said taking out his favorite book. Gai became dejected at Kakashi and Lee went up to comfort him, an act that everyone tried very hard to ignore.

"Akimichi Chouji and Haruno Sakura please come down," Hayate said.

"Good luck Sakura," Kakashi said.

"You had better not lose to Forehead-Girl!" Ino said to Chouji. "If you do I'll personally make sure you never eat another barbeque place again!"

Chouji looked horrified by the idea of never eating his favorite foods again. His horror quickly turned to determination as he marched down the stairs. Asuma looked at his female student, "You are away you just sent that girl to her death right?"

"That's what she gets for trying to steal Sasuke-kun," Ino said. Though her face looked a little pale as she began to realize what Chouji could actually do to her rival.

As soon Hayate began the match Chouji used one of his family's signature jutsus, "Nikudan Sensha No Jutsu! (Meat Tank)." The rather plump Gennin suddenly grew to the size of a large bolder and began to spin at an extremely high speed to the frighten Sakura. The poor pink haired girl did not have enough time to move out of the way and was run over by the mass of Gennin.

When Chouji finally stopped spinning he was very dizzy and stumbling around the arena floor. Sakura was out cold after getting flattened and thus it was no surprise that Hayate called Chouji the winner of the match.

"I think you need to train your student more Kakashi," Kurenai said with a sweat drop on the back of her head.

"Maybe you're right," Kakashi agreed.

After Sakura was finished getting carried away Hayate announced the next match. "Yamanaka Ino and Dosu Kinuta."

"YOSH THEY'RE SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST!" Lee yelled loudly as Ino's and Dosu's names came up on the board. "THE FINAL MATCH WILL BE A BRILLIANT DISPLAY OF YOUTHFUL ENERGY!"

The last remaining Oto-nin smiled under his bandages at his soon to be easy victory. "The only here less week then the blonde girl was that pink haired one. This will be easy."

Standing near her sensei, Ino looked more than a little frightened. She remembered the fight she and her team had against the Oto Team in the Forest of Death not more than a couple of days ago. At the time even Shino, the strongest person one their team had trouble with this guy. Ino knew she did not stand a chance. Asuma seeing his student's fear spoke up, "Ino just do your best. That is all anyone can ever ask of you."

Asuma's words did little to help Ino at the moment. Surprisingly it was Shino that spoke next, "His gauntlet uses sound waves to attack. My bugs heard the ultrasonic waves in the Forest. Avoid that and you should do well."

Ino looked at the stoic Aburame a moment in shock. She had never heard him speak this much before to her. The fact that he was trying to help her surprised her the most however, "Why are you helping me?"

"Because that is what teammates do," Shino answered.

Ino could not help but smile before she made her way down to the arena. NO sooner did she arrived did Hayate start the match. Dosu quickly rushed forward activating his gauntlet trying to win the match quickly. Ino jumped out of the way and flung several shuriken and kunai at the bandaged Gennin.

Dosu blocked kunai and shuriken with his gauntlet and charged once again. Ino made a couple of Bushin to try and confuse Dosu, but Dosu not fooled for an instant. Just before he slammed his arm into Ino's gut he said, "Bushins don't make a sound when they move." As his hit connected the sound waves passed thought Ino's body and up into her ears. The disruption of her inner ears caused Ino to lose her equilibrium and drop to her knees. Once she was on her knees Dosu slammed his gauntlet into the back of her head causing her to fall unconscious. "What a weakling," Dosu said heading back up the stairs.

No one needed to be told, but the last match would be between the green wearing Gennin's and Subaku no Gaara. With a swirl of sand Gaara appeared out in the fighting area waiting for Lee to join him. Before Lee jumped down however Gai stopped him with a bit of advice, "Lee before you go down there I shall give you the key to victory over this one," Lee leaned in waiting his sensei's pearl of wisdom. "There is something strange about the gourd on his back. Watch it carefully."

"Yes Gai-Sensei!" Lee nodded enthusiastically. Everyone else just rolled his or her eyes at the obvious hint about the gourd. When Lee jumped down and took his position no one had any clue the kind of trial the young shinobi was about to face.

Author's Note: I'm going to leave Lee and Gaara's fight the way it is. In personal opinion it is one of the best fights in all of Naruto and does not need to be changed.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Naruto sat in the audience waiting for the final matches to begin. With his were Hiashi Hizashi and Hanabi. There were here to watch Hinata and Neji try and earn the Chunin title. All four were feeling anxiety for various reasons. Naruto because he wanted both Hinata and Neji to pass, both had been taken by their prospective parents and taught in private and he suspected that each had a new jutsu for the Finals; Naruto also knew about Orochimaru and something was going to happen today but he was not sure what. Hiashi and Hizashi were anxious for similar reasons for Naruto, both were wondering what the other Hyuuga had taught their children and which was better, a little sibling rivalry. Beyond that however both were nervous about the upcoming attack from Orochimaru. Hanabi was at the edge of her seat because of she wanted to see her sister and cousin fight as well as looking forward to the celebration afterwards totally unaware of danger that was about to take place.

Naruto gazed down at the contestants and took note that all were present except Sasuke. Naruto knew that Sasuke was going to be late simply because he was off training with Kakashi. When Naruto asked Shikamaru how he felt about Sasuke getting personal training from their Sensei Shikamaru just shrugged saying it was too troublesome to worry about. Considering that Naruto did not really like Sasuke and did not want think about him Naruto's attention went to the others. His first gaze went to Hinata and Neji, they both looked confident and had ready for their fights. Shikamaru was standing with a slouch talking with Chouji who was eating yet another bag of chips. Shino was his normally stoic self. Temari and the middle Suna (Sand) Sibling were speaking to each other as far away from Gaara as possible. The Oto (Sound) shinobi, Dosu was focusing on Neji. And finally Gaara was standing even more silently then Shino, if that were possible.

After a quick survey of the contestants Naruto's focus returned to the Hyuuga pair and wondered what kind of training they had gone through and how it would compare to his own training. In the month that between the end of the preliminaries and now Naruto had been anything but idle. His training using those Shock Tags was made him stronger, faster, and gave him greater stamina than ever before. Now he could keep the Shock tags on all day giving him a continuous workout even when he was asleep. Naruto had also made a mental note to place an order for more Shock Tags before these ran out, the continuous training they provided made them well worth the expense. Also about the Shock Tags Naruto continued training in Impact and now had another Rendan (Combo) under his belt. But was truly the greatest part about his training was that Naruto finally had a Ninjutsu in his arsenal. And not just any Ninjutsu, this was one that did not require Hand Seals and was one of the strongest in all of Konoha, the Rasengan.

How Naruto came to learn the Rasengan was not something Naruto was overly proud of. He learned the famous jutsu from the most perverted man in the history of Fire Country, Jiraiya. The Toad Hermit came to Naruto one day and offered to him a Ninjutsu. Naruto told him to buzz off saying he could not use Hand Seals. To Naruto's surprise Jiraiya just laughed and said that not all Ninjutsus and Genjutsus required to Hand Seals and he was willing to teach Naruto one of them. Naruto almost jumped at the chance to learn a Ninjutsu but rained in his excitement, he knew Jiraiya wanted something return from his ability to read people….

Naruto was standing in a black tank top and blue pants with his Shock Tags in their proper locations. Every so often one of Naruto's muscles would twitch from the electrical current. He was looking suspiciously at the person he dubbed 'Ero-Sannin' wanting to know what he had to do to learn this Hand Seal-less jutsu Jiraiya just offered him. "Alright so what's the catch?" Naruto asked. "I know you're not willing to teach me anything out of the kindness of your heart, especially after I knocked you in the mouth the other day."

Jiraiya had to resist smiling. "Kid's smart," Jiraiya thought, "Knows not to immediately trust someone." Out loud Jiraiya gave a brief nod. "You're right about that Brat. I need you to do something for me."

"And what can a an Upper Gennin Level Mercenary like me do, that a Sannin such as yourself cannot?" Naruto asked.

"Still suspicious," Jiraiya thought again, "Not really surprising, what with being raised by the Hyuuga's after all. They are so paranoid they hardly trust their own family, though Sensei said that's been changing in recent years." Speaking up to answer Naruto's question, "In a way it's your fault I have to ask you this."

"How is it my fault?" Naruto asked.

"Because of you complaining to the Management at the Hot Springs no one will even let me near there anymore," Jiraiya said. Naruto smirked as Jiraiya said that. He had reported what Jiraiya was doing after he left the bath. "And now," Jiraiya continued, "I can't get inspiration for my next book!"

"Well that's your problem, Ero-Sannin!" Naruto fired back.

"And now it's yours!" Jiraiya returned. "If you want to learn the secret of Seal-less Jutsus you'll have to make up for it! You have to get me a replacement for my inspiration!" Before Naruto could protest Jiraiya disappeared in a large plum of smoke leaving Naruto to ponder the offer….

Much to Naruto's personal shame he took Jiraiya up on his offer. The allure of finally learning a Ninjutsu was just too great and so he went out to find something that Jiraiya would consider appropriate 'inspiration.' Naruto found it, or rather her, three days after the end of the Prelims. Naruto found Anko sunbathing near a small waterfall in the woods, relaxing on her day off after her job as the Second Examiner was finished. Naruto had reluctantly informed Jiraiya of the spot and the Super Pervert gleefully went off to 'Gather Information.' The next day Jiraiya came to the spot where he promised to meet Naruto with a smile a mile wide. Apparently Kurenai had joined Anko during the time in between and Jiraiya caught her as well. The Toad Sannin praised Naruto for giving him the location of the favorite sunbathing spot of two of the most gorgeous kunoichi in all of Konoha. Even now a month later Naruto could not look at Kurenai in the face due to the shame of knowing that at least part of her likeness would be in Jiraiya's next book.

Still as much of a pervert Jiraiya was he was a man of his word. He started to instruct Naruto in the Yondaime Hokage's most powerful jutsu. So for the next month Naruto, in addition to his personal training, also learned how to form the Rasengan. Do to Naruto's long experience with chakra control exercises that were needed for Impact, the training for the Rasengan went faster than Jiraiya had predicted. Naruto passed the first stage, popping a baloon with chakra spinning in several different direction, in a matter of days, the second stage, popping a rubber ball the same way only with greater power, took only another two weeks and the third and final stage, keeping the sphere together and tightly packed, took another week and a half. In fact Naruto just finished perfecting the Rasengan two days before the finals. The only person, other then Jiraiya, that knew Naruto could perform the Rasengan was Hanabi….

It was two days before the Finals of the Chunin Exam and Hanabi had been feeling rather lonely for the past month. With her father and uncle training her sister and cousin in secret the only company she had was her adoptive older brother Naruto. And even then she only saw him sporadically due to his own training. For the past week however Hanabi had not seen her favorite non-Hyuuga due to the latest stage in his training. Today Hanabi decided to go look for Naruto wanting to spend time with him. After ditching her escort/body guard/baby sitter, a testament to her developing stealth skills as he chaperone was another Hyuuga, she made her way to Naruto's preferred training ground outside the Hyuuga Compound.

When she arrived Hanabi saw Naruto panting. This caught her totally by surprise. She had never witnessed Naruto this tired before, even when she saw him sparring with her father or uncle. He would be flushed and occasionally taking deep breaths, but never panting. Worried that he was hurt Hanabi ran up to him calling out his name, "Naruto!"

Before Hanabi had come upon Naruto he had been practicing the Rasengan. He had almost got the formation right and only needed a couple more times and he would have the jutsu down. The strain learning the technique was immense and even now without his Shock Tags on, the training taxed Naruto's charka reserves to their limits. So when Hanabi came to Naruto's training spot he was taking a breather, heavy on the breathing. When he heard her shout and detected her worry he turned to her, "Hanabi is something wrong?"

"No," Hanabi said shaking her head. "But you looked so tired so I thought something was wrong with you."

"No I'm fine Hanabi," Naruto assured. "I'm just tired from my training."

"What kind of training can make you tired?" Hanabi asked. It was no secrete that Naruto could take on nearly all kinds of exercise and train longer then anyone else among his age group and quite a few others as well. So for some training to tire him out would draw anyone's curiosity.

"I'm learning a Ninjutsu," Naruto admitted. Naruto had wanted to keep the training a secret until after the Chunin Exam Finals so he could surprise everybody at once. But Hanabi's mixture of curiosity and slight worry made him want to tell her.

"I though you couldn't do Ninjutsus," Hanabi commented.

"This is a special one," Naruto said. He held out his hand and started forming the still imperfect Rasengan. When he was finished the sphere had only a couple of imperfections, "It's still incomplete but I've almost got it perfected. The jutsu is supposed to be a perfect spinning sphere of pure chakra. But as you can see it still isn't quite there yet."

"Maybe I can help," Hanabi stated and went through a few hand seals. "Byakugan!" Hanabi's Bloodline Limit was nowhere near as developed other Hyuuga Clan Members do to her age, but even then her eyes could see chakra in much better detail than a normal person's eyes. "So many layers!" Hanabi gasped as she looked at the Rasengan with her Byakugan. When she first saw the jutsu Hanabi thought it was like a miniature version of her father's Kaiten. When she saw it with the Byakugan and all the layers of chakra spinning in so many different directions at once negated that idea.

Naruto dropped the Rasengan due to the strain of maintaining it. As he was shaking his hand to get rid of the numbness the jutsu caused he asked, "So what did you see?"

"I saw the sphere made up of a lot of layers of chakra each spinning in different directions," Hanabi said. "Most of the structure was tightly coiled and compacted like a spring but three places at 280 Degrees on the Vertical Plane Outer most layer, and 95 and 176 Degrees on the Horizontal Plane on the third Inner Layer." Her analysis of the jutsu's imperfection would have surprised most people but Hanabi was yet another genius of the Hyuuga Clan. Not quite on par with Neji but still truly note worthy. So her statement came no surprise to Naruto who was well aware of her intellect.

"Thanks Hanabi," Naruto said just before he reformed the Rasengan. This time after a few seconds the chakra formed into a perfect sphere. "Let's test it out." Naruto dashed to a large oak tree near by and slammed the jutsu into the bark, "Rasengan!" The jutsu drilled into the bark and a half second latter it blew the meter diameter trunk apart causing the tree to topple over.

After a few moments of silence Hanabi asked, "Can you teach me that?" The Hyuuga Clan may have preferred to use Jyuken Taijutsu to Ninjutsu and Genjutsu but it was not unheard of for them to use either, especially if it worked well with their Clan Taijutsu style. Rasengan being a jutsu that was pure chakra manipulation and apparently did internal damage, if the blowing of the trunk from inside out was any indication, then this jutsu would be perfect.

"Maybe latter," Naruto said. "The guy who taught it to me said it was an A-Rank Jutsu. That means it's really dangerous to use." Hanabi nodded understanding the dangers of learning such an advanced jutsu. "Now I want you to promise not to tell anyone about my jutsu. I want to surprise everyone after the Finals."

"Ok Naruto," Hanabi said. "But only if you take me out for some ice-cream." Naruto laughed a little and agreed to the deal….

When the Hyuuga Twins and their children returned the next day all four could tell that both Hanabi and Naruto were hiding something. When asked what was going on both Naruto and Hanabi said it was a secret and a surprise that all of them would have to wait and see. Naturally this made the four even more curious on what was going on but decided to drop the matter for the time being, as they had more important things on their mind.

"It appears that Hatake and Uchiha are not going to show up before the first round matches begin," Hizashi stated.

"Not all that surprising," Hiashi commented. "In nearly fifteen years he's been a Jounin, that man not been on time for anything."

"Doesn't that mean that Sasuke will be disqualified?" Naruto asked.

"Normally yes," Hiashi answered. "But this particular is a special case. Uchiha is the last of his Clan and a lot of people are waiting to see what he is capable of. Add to that he is facing the Kazekage's Son and the fact that both are among the heavy favored to win, it is easy to see the officials are willing to make an exception this time. In other words the Daimyo's want a good show so they cane bet money on." While this was true it was only half a truth. The Hokage had anticipated that Orochimaru wanted to see Sasuke fight before his attack. So any kind of delay was in Konoha's favor, it gave more time for them to prepare their forces.

"I think they are just playing favorites," Naruto commented silently. Louder he asked, "So when will he fight then? I mean Sasuke and Gaara were scheduled to fight first."

"Probably at the end," Hizashi answered. "It looks like their moving onto the second match." Down in the fighting arena the referee for the Finals, a Jounin with a small senbon neddle in his mouth, called for the all but two of the constants to leave the area. Soon only two Gennin remained waiting for the match to start.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The pair that remained after the other Gennin were left the arena were Neji and Dosu. The entire they were there Dosu was glaring at Neji. His reason was because he tried to locate the Hyuuga during the time for training to eliminate him, one less obstacle to get in the way of fighting the Uchiha. Dosu also tried this tactic with Gaara but the night he planned to kill Gaara the Suna (Sand) user was also nowhere to be found. He would have tried once more but the body of the judge from the Preliminary Rounds had been discovered and the Shinobi of Konoha (Leaf) were on alert. So Dosu was forced to abandon his assassination plans.

Neji was well aware of Dosu's glares and the subtle amount of killing intent coming from him but paid if little mind. Neji was not worried about facing the Dosu he already knew how the Gennin fought, dissected the strengths and weaknesses and came up with no more then three separate counters, plus he had a couple of aces in the hole just incase of some surprises. Neji's thoughts went to his future opponents, Hinata, Sasuke and Gaara in particular. Hinata knew his method of fighting inside and out because they had trained together for years. He was better then her at pure Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) but no fight was ever pure anything. Hinata had a significant edge on him when it came to flexibility and she could contort her body to surprisingly displays of bending making her a difficult person to hit. Sasuke was an unknown; he had shown that strength was below Neji's in general but that strange burst of strength back in the Forest of Death would give the Uchiha an advantage in surprise, calling on reserves when he should be down for the count. And finally there was Gaara. The boy's overwhelming display of sheer power against Lee was more then disconcerting. Added to the fact that he seemed more than just a bit unstable mentally only added to the danger of facing him. So while Neji had a plan to beat Dosu he knew that he would have to think of strategies for the others almost on the fly.

The proctor and one of many judges of the Final Exam, Shiranui Genma, waited for a couple of seconds after everyone else left the arena. "Well let's get started," Genma said to the pair. "The rules are the same as the Prelims, so I don't feel the need to repeat them." He paused and Dosu and Neji got ready. "Fight!"

Neji wasted no time in activating his Byakugan and moving into his Jyuuken stance. When Dosu came charging it Neji could already see the chakra flowing down Dosu's arms and into the sound generating devise. He allowed a small smile to appear on his normally controlled face, as Dosu was playing right into Neji's plan.

With a quick motion to his kunai holster Neji flung three kunai at Dosu. The kunai came so fast that Dosu could not dodge all of them and was forced to block with his metal covered arm. Two of the kunai struck the devise and the third grazed his bandaged covered cheek. Dosu continued his charge and thrust his hand out towards Neji. Neji however jumped four meters back to avoid the strike and shifted into another stance ready for the next assault. "Fighting up close is both of our strengths," Dosu said. "But unlike you I don't have to make direct contact with my target to be effective. I just have to get close enough and you will be finished."

"You are a fool," Neji stated. "It will take some much stronger then you to defeat me."

Dosu's visible eye narrowed as he prepared his next assault. Taking three shuriken out of his back pouch he flung them at Neji who dodged to Dosu's right. Dosu was dashing towards Neji and was preparing his sonic attack. Unlike last time Neji stood his ground and prepared a counter attack. When Dosu was close enough he unleashed his chakra into his devise but the result was not what he expected. Instead of an ultrasonic sound wave coming out, nothing came out. His surprise cost him as Neji now stepped forward and jabbed his palms into Dosu's chest right on top of where his lungs were located.

When Neji stepped back and Dosu collapsed to the ground completely unconscious. Genma raised an eyebrow and approached the fallen Gennin. When he checked Dosu's prone form he confirmed that Dosu was out of the fight. "The winner of the match is Hyuuga Neji!" Genma announced and the crowd cheered at declaration.

Up in the stands Hanabi looked confused, "Did that Oto-nin's device malfunction?"

"Not quite Hanabi," Hizashi answered. "The devise was broken by Neji."

"And how did he do that Hizashi-sama?" Naruto asked.

"During our training Neji took Jyuuken to a level that has not been seen in over one hundred years," Hizashi answered. "As you all know the weakness all have Taijutsu Specialists have is in long range combat. Neji discovered a way of channeling his chakra out of his hands to create a vacuum and strike from a distance."

"But how did that damage the sound devise?" Hanabi asked.

"The kunai," Hiashi replied. "When he threw the kunai he used his knew vacuum attack right behind them. The vacuum struck the device just after the kunai were deflected…"

"And the vacuum attack damaged the holes the sound waves came out of making it useless," Naruto finished. "Then all he had to do was wait for Dosu to get close enough and strike him with a debilitating attack to end the match. In this case striking at the lungs."

A Chunin judge who was sitting near the four overheard the explanation. Until the Hyuuga's spoke he like many others were wondering what happened to the sound devise after hearing explanation he smiled thinking, "Kid knew his opponent's weakness of overly relying on his tool and came up with a plan to take it out using a hidden attack. Pretty clever, well he'll get my vote that's for sure."

"But how is the vacuum produced?" Naruto asked.

"The same way any Jyuuken strike does," Hizashi answered. "A precise and focused burst of chakra. Only instead thrusting the chakra into a body it is thrust into the air. The difficulty comes in the form of control. Too much chakra and the vacuum is to large and only creates a gust of wind with no power. To little and the vacuum does not travel more than a few centimeters before it dissipates making it useless."

"Wow that's cool," Naruto said with Hanabi nodding in agreement while staring intently at Neji as he left the arena. The two adult Hyuuga chuckled at Hanabi's hero-worship gaze.

Once the Medics carried off Dosu, Genma looked up at the other contestants to call down the next pair. "Nara Shikamaru and Subaku no Kankuro come down for your match."

In the contestant area there was a unique scene happening. For different reasons neither of the contestants seemed all that eager to participate in the match. Off to one corner Kankuro was talking with his elder sister Temari and by the balcony Shikamaru was talking with Chouji.

"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed. "I don't even want to be a Chunin. I just want to look at clouds. Is that so wrong?"

"But if you don't at least try, won't you be letting your Sensei down?" Chouji asked. Shikamaru just sighed again not really answering one way or another.

On the other side of the waiting area Kankuro was talking with Tamari. "What are we going to do?" Kankuro whispered. "We have to stall for time for when that Uchiha kid to get back. But if I fight I might have to use the surprise in Karasu."

"I wouldn't worry to much about it," Temari whispered back. "I don't think that guy wants to fight. I think he'll just give up."

True to Temari's words Shikamaru raised his hand to call attention to himself, "Hey, this whole exam is too troublesome. I quit."

Down in the fighting area Genma gave a slight shrug before speaking to the crowd, "Nara Shikamaru has withdrawn from the Exam and there for Subaku no Kankuro proceeds to the next round." The crowd murmured in disappointment about the news for a few moments but quickly settled down as Genma spoke again. "The next match will now commence. Would Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino come down?"

The crowd's earlier disappointment changed to excitement when they heard whom would fight in the next match. In particular a few small groups were on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

"This should be a good match," Naruto said. "I've worked with Shino a couple of times. He is very good at using his insects, both offensively and defensively."

"Hinata-sama will definitely have her work cut out for her," Hizashi nodded. "Young Shino is the pride of the Aburame Clan and is spoke highly of with in their ranks."

"But wouldn't any family speak like that about the clan heir?" Hanabi asked.

There was a moment of guilt on Hiashi's face but it was so quick only Hizashi caught it. In the early years of Hinata's training Hiashi would often speak his disappointment about her performance quite harshly. That changed after the night of Hinata's attempted kidnapping. That night Hiashi took a long look at his life and what he almost lost. What he saw was rather sickening, he ended up treating his family the same way his father had; a way Hiashi hated with every fiber of his being. With the change in attitude towards how he treated Hinata, and a healthy dose of inspiration from Naruto's training practices, Hinata had made a complete reversal in her performance. Now Hiashi could not be more proud of his children, blood related or adopted and he did consider Naruto one of his children.

"The Aburame Clan are not ones to meet out praise to anyone," Hiashi answered. "They are much more subdued in their expressions then most people. Praise from an Aburame that is more then a few words is not to be taken likely, even to one of their own Clan."

In another section of the stands Ino and Sakura were talking about the upcoming match as well. "So who do thing will win?" Sakura asked. "I know Hinata is strong but then again so is Shino." Silently she added, "But neither are as strong as Sasuke-kun!"

Ino had a thoughtful look on her face as she weighed what she knew about the two Gennin. After a moment of thought she decided to go with the one she knew the most about, her teammate Shino. "I think Shino will win. He's mostly the reason Chouji and I made it to the Third Round anyway." Sakura simply shrugged and went back to waiting for the match to start.

Not far below Ino and Sakura; Asuma, Kurenai, Kiba and Noa were having their own discussion about the up coming match. "I hope you'll forgive me when Shino beats Hinata."

"Don't count on it," Kiba said. "Hinata is strongest on out team. There's nothing Bug Boy's got that can even touch her." Akamaru barked from on top of Kiba's head in agreement.

"Yeah Asuma-sensei," Noa agreed, "Hinata spent the last month training personally with her Outosan (Father) and he's like one of the strongest Jounin in the Village."

"I have to agree with my students on this one Asuma," Kurenai added. "I'm sure Shino is good but Hinata is second only to her elder Itoko (Cousin) Neji in ability."

"Well I'll give you that Hinata is strong," Asuma conceded. "But don't be disappointed when it's my student that is advancing to the next round and not yours."

In the fighting area Hinata and Shino had arrived and waited for Genma to start the match. Both were silent and on guard so as not to give anything away to their opponent. Genma seeing that both were ready yelled, "Begin."

Shino and Hinata wasted no time in activating their bloodline limits. The veins around Hinata's eyes bulged and her vision changed to her enhanced chakra sight showing Shino's chakra system and the kikai bugs (Destruction Bugs) that inhabited it, though some were coming out of small pores in his skin for use in battle. The bugs that Hinata saw came out of Shino's body and began to swarm around like a cloud waiting for the signal from their host to begin.

Deciding to get the match started Hinata's hands when to her kunai holster and hip pack followed quickly by her throwing a kunai and several shuriken at Shino. Shino reacted by dodging to his right with his bugs moving with them. When the projectiles passed by him Shino countered by throwing three of his own kunai back at her. Because of Shino's closer distance because of his dodge Hinata did not have time to dodge the all of the kunai and caught on of them. That was when she discovered Shino's trick, as several of his kikai insects that were on the kunai started to crawl on her and immediately started to drain her chakra. Hinata quickly started to slap the bugs away as they were too few in number to drain her quickly. However they did drain her and that meant a prolonged fight using Jyuuken (Gentle fist) would be hampered.

Still a Hyuuga does not have to fight a prolonged encounter to score a devastating blow, like what Neji demonstrated just an hour or so ago. Knowing that she needed to get in close Hinata dashed forward towards Shino. This move was a risk because it would put her in contact with the swarm around Shino's body but if Hinata was quick enough she could score a decisive bow.

Shino quickly reacted to Hinata's dash, by sending more of his kikai bugs at Hinata. He knew that this move carried risk for both opponents but it could win the match for the Hyuuga Heiress. The larger swarm was a ploy to try and land some of the chakra-eating insects in order to force Hinata to move off. Shino knew from personal experience that the when the kikai bug fed on chakra it disrupted the charka control of the individual. The hope was it would disrupt Hinata's control enough that Jyuuken would be rendered less effective.

With her Byakugan activated Hinata saw the additional insects leaving Shino's body before they reached open air. This gave her enough time to react and avoid most of the swarm by jumping and performing a mid air full body twist and land behind Shino. Shino remembering what happened in the preliminaries reacted by twisting away from Hinata's Jyuuken jab to the back of his neck. Unfortunately Shino was not entirely quick enough and Hinata landed a palm to Shino's right shoulder damaging the muscle. The sudden flash of pain caused Shino to stumble and receive two addition blows to his right side.

Sensing their hive's distress the swarm quickly flew around Shino and made to attack Hinata. Hinata was able to see the approaching insects and jump away. After brushing off the few kikai that managed to land on her. After taking the briefest moment to catch her breath Hinata saw the hole swarm was approaching her position. It was too big and spread out to avoid so that left her with one option and slid in to an obscure Jyuuken stance and push more chakra into her eyes giving her the famed three hundred and sixty degree sight the Byakugan was famous for.

As they watched the match, the Hyuuga's and Naruto saw Hinata take an unfamiliar stance, at least to three of them. One of the four watching immediately recognized the stance. "Otosan," Hanabi spoke up. "What stance is Hinata using? I don't think I've seen it before?" Hanabi asked the question that was passing though the minds of Hizashi and Naruto.

"What you are about to see is a truly unique jutsu," Hiashi answered. Down in the fighting arena Hinata had activated her Byakugan and started to move her arms in a complex pattern at blurring speeds. Hizashi and Hanabi activated their own Byakugan to see what Hinata was doing. What they say was confusing to Hanabi and amazing to Hizashi. Hinata had a thin line of chakra extending from the palms of each of her hands about half a meter in length. As the attack from Shino's bugs came closer Hiashi continued his explanation. "During the previous month when I was training Hinata personally she revealed that she had reached a plateau in her training. She was unable to progress in Jyuuken, or to be more precise the Jyuuken we practice." The three sitting with him looked at him confused because Hinata had not mentioned anything like this to any of them. "She hid this fact, from everyone. I surmise that she did not want to disappoint us." Hiashi shook his head knowing that just a few years ago that would have been true, at least for him that is. "She went further on to reveal that she has now created her own branch of Jyuuken." The pride in the Hyuuga Clan Leader's voice was very pronounced. "While the standard Jyuuken focuses on precision and quick strikes, Hinata's concentrates on flowing continuous movement. What you are witnessing is Hinata's first and completely original jutsu of her personal Jyuuken branch, the Shugo Hakke Rokujuuyonshou (Guardian Eight Divination Signs, Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand)."

"How was she able to come up with this jutsu, Hiashi-sama?" Naruto asked as he watched Hinata's jutsu literally slice the Kikkai Bugs into pieces.

"The way Hinata described the inspiration for the jutsu came from her inability to use Hakkeshou Kaiten (Eight Divination Palms of the Hand, Heavenly Spin) and her difficulty to use Hakke Rokujuuyonshou (Eight Divination Signs, Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand)," Hiashi answered. "As you know Hinata's Byakugan is not as developed as some other Hyuuga, so she cannot see the tenkatsu points. And she cannot produce chakra from all of her tenkatsu, which is the foundation of Kaiten. To get around these…difficulties, Hinata took the base principles of the two jutsus, the succession attack from Rokujuujonshou and the defense of all her body from Kaiten, and combined them into one. With Hinata's natural flexibility and fluidic movements her arms can to move at the proper angles so that all of her body is covered by the slashing chakra from her palms."

"Did you help her create this jutsu Otosan?" Hanabi asked.

"No," Hiashi answered truthfully. "Hinata had already been developing the jutsu for months now all I did was help her refine the jutsu by helping her with the sight range of her Byakugan. She can now see 360 Degrees around her body so there is no place she cannot intercept an incoming attack."

"What does Hinata call her knew branch of Jyuuken?" Hizashi asked.

"Jyuuken, Mizu (Gentle Fist, Water) Style because its unending flow," Hiashi answered.

"One taking Jyuuken to an entirely new level and the other taking it in a direction previously unheard of," Hizashi said. "Looks like our children will surpass us sooner than we anticipated, don't you agree Oniisan (Older Bother).

"Most certainly Ototo (Younger Brother)," Hiashi agreed.

Seeing the rapid rate his insects were being sliced into pieces Shino quickly called them back. Shino's command was too late however as more then three quarters of his insects had met their fate at Hinata's original jutsu. When Hinata stopped her arms and returned to a Jyuuken defensive stance Shino took note that she was breathing much heavier then when she began the jutsu and came to the conclusion that it took a lot of chakra to maintain it and performing it had tired her out.

Hinata was indeed tired. Her jutsu required a constant stream of chakra to her palms and the extra strain to maintain her Byakugan also contributed, not too mention what the kikai bugs had done. Knowing that Shino was injured by her earlier strikes and that most of his insects were dead Hinata deactivated her Byakugan and dropped her stance. She concluded that to continue would only be a waste of energy and that she would not be able to face someone like Neji or Gaara and win, so the best course of action would be to stop here.

Shino had come to the same conclusion and commanded his kikai bugs to return to his body and he too took a relaxed stance. He knew Hinata had given up as well and for a moment the two exchanged a look and sent a silent message between the two that would only be picked up by people who were experts at reading people's intentions.

Shino and Hinata turned to Genma. "I give up," Shino began. "I cannot continue."

"I do as well," Hinata said. "I cannot continue and fight in later matches I lost too much charka in this fight."

Genma nodded as he thought, "Both knew that they could not continue and decided to call it quits. Chunins are squad leaders and need to think of those under them. Better to save the lives of your teammates then it is to take unnecessary risks. Looks like we might have a couple of new Chunins in the next couple of months." Out loud called the match, "Due to a double forfeit this match is over. Neither Hyuuga Hinata nor Aburame Shino shall advance to the next round."

There were mix results from the crowd. The civilians and inexperienced shinobi wondered why the combatants gave up as they thought both could continue. The experienced shinobi on the other hand nodded at Shino and Hinata's decision.

"Why did Onesan (Older Sister) give up? Now she there's no way for her to win and become a Chunin," Hanabi wondered.

"The goal of the Third Exam is not to win Hanabi," Naruto answered. "It is to show if you have the individual abilities necessary to become a Chunin. Hinata and Aburame-san did that."

"How, they just gave up?" Hanabi asked still confused.

"A Chunin is a squad leader and he or she is responsible for those under them," Hiashi answered. "They have to make decisions that affect not just themselves but the others as well. Risk is a part of our lives but unnecessary risk is foolish. It would have been too risky for either Hinata or Aburame-san to continue, both did not have strength to fight in the later rounds." He looked at his youngest daughter and asked, "Do you understand now Hanabi?"

Hanabi gave a quick nod before asking, "Outosan can I go see Onesan and Onisan (Older Brother)?"

"Of course Hanabi," Hiashi said. "If fact we should all go and see them and congratulate them on their performance."

Author's Note: This chapter took a long time to write and I had to rewrite it several times. I hope the mistakes are minimal and the chapter is enjoyable.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

In the Medical room the Hyuuga's and Naruto quietly entered as not to disturb any of the medics as they treated the people with injuries. As they walked in they saw Hinata and Shino being treated for their injuries from their match. After a few minutes the medics concluded their treatments and they approached. "Hinata-nechan you were great," Hanabi said.

"Yes you did performed well Hinata," Hiashi agreed. "As did you Aburame-san."

Shino gave a brief nod saying, "Thank you Hyuuga-sama."

"Have either of you seen Neji?" Hizashi asked.

"I believe Tenten came by just a few minutes ago, Ojiisan (Uncle)" Hinata said with a slight blush.

"I'll go get them," Hanabi volunteered.

"I think you should give them some privacy Hanabi," Hizashi said.

"Why?" Hanabi asked innocently.

"We'll tell you when you're older," Hiashi answered.

A few minutes later Neji and Tenten came back to the infirmary. When everyone but Hanabi gave the pair knowing look Tenten blushed as red a tomato and Neji even had a slight redness in his cheeks. "Otosan what are you doing here?"

"We came to congratulate you on your victory and see Hinata," Hizashi answered. "How are you feeling?" Hizashi could have embarrassed his son but choose not too. Besides he knew Naruto would do that enough later in private.

"I am well and I believe I will be well enough to fight my next match," Neji answered.

"I hope you win the whole thing Neji-nisan!" Hanabi said.

It was then that everyone in the infirmary heard the crowd's voices rise up. "Sounds like the next match is underway," Naruto said.

"We should probably head back," Hiashi said.

While the Hyuuga's and Naruto were in the infirmary the next fight between Chouji and Temari was about to begin. In the fighter's waiting area Temari and Kankuro were discussing what Temari should do during the match, "That Uchiha kid still hasn't showed up yet," Kankuro whispered.

"I know that means I need to keep things going as long as I can to by more time," Temari answered. "The problem is I think that fat kid is going to quit just like his lazy friend.

"Don't worry I'll take care of it," Kankuro answered

"Do you think I should try Shikamaru?" Chouji asked. "Otosan (Dad) and Asuma-sensei said I should try my best but I'm not sure I want to fight a girl again. Sakura still hasn't forgiven me for beating her and she can be almost as scary as Ino."

On one hand Shikamaru actually did want to see his friend succeed, he may not care about his own career as a shinobi but he did want to see his friends succeed. But on the other hand he knew better than anyone what Chouji was talking about. Sakura could be extremely troublesome and did not want Chouji to go through more troubles because of his female teammate. He still remembered Sakura ranting and raving about how it was wrong for a guy to hit a girl and then yelling that if Chouji were to hurt another girl she would personally castrate him. "I honestly don't know Chouji, sorry," Shikamaru said with some sympathy.

That decision was taken out of the Konoha (Leaf) Gennin's hands however when Chouji suddenly felt a sharp tug from his chest and found himself falling over the edge of the balcony. Shikamaru looked over to the Suna-nins (Sand) and saw Kankuro's figures twitching and quickly concluded that the puppet user used chakra strings to pull Chouji over the edge.

Temari gave a small nod to Kankuro and sailed down on her giant fan. When she landed she refolded the fan and waited for the match to start.

"All right since both of you are here we'll begin," Genma said. "Akimichi Chouji vs. Sabaku no Temari. Begin!"

Temari knew she had to stall, but also had to make sure it did not look like she was stalling. She figured the best way to accomplish this was to treat him with contempt and fight just hard enough to get him to continue. This would conserve her strength for the invasion as well as draw the fight out. "This fight won't last long," Temari said loud enough for Chouji to hear. She hoped she could taunt him into fighting. "**Ninpo Fuusajin! (Dust Wind)."**

**Chouji remembering what that jutsu did in the Prelims scrabbled as quickly as his large body could to avoid wind. Unfortunately for Chouji he was not quick enough to avoid the hurricane force wind causing him to be blown into one of the trees that was in the fighting arena. Chouji shook the dizziness out of his eyes only to see Temari was about to swing her fan yet again. This time Chouji was quick enough to avoid the attack by ducking behind the tree. Behind the tree Chouji started to think about his situation. He was still indecisive about competing, "What should I do?" he thought. **

**Up in the stands Asuma was leaning forward looking at the tree Chouji was hiding behind. He wanted Chouji to do his best but knew the boy was rather reluctant to fight Temari, he had overheard Sakura's rant, but he still wanted to see Chouji do the best he could.**

**Asuma was not the only one wanting Chouji to do well as Ino decided she would cheer on her teammate. "Come on Chouji!" Ino yelled her encouragement. "Show that Suna Baka (Idiot) what your made of!" **

Down in the fighting area Temari was pleased with how things were going. "The more he hides the more time is taken up," she thought. "Still have to make it look good." "Come on fat boy if you come out now I'll make you're suffering less painful!"

"Oh no," Asuma said.

"What's wrong?" Kurenai asked.

"Calling Chouji fat is taboo," Ino answered. "Chouji's mad now and is going to crush her flatter than she did Forehead Girl."

"HEY!" Sakura yelled indignantly.

The look on Chouji's face as he stepped out from behind the tree shocked Temari and everyone else in the stadium for that matter. It was a look filled with rage, "I AM NOT FAT!!" Chouji bellowed. "I'M JUST BIG BONED!!" With a few hand seals Chouji called out "Baika no Jutsu! (Multi Size)" then quickly followed by a couple more hand seals and a call of, "Nikudan Sensha! (Meat Tank)" Chouji started rolling towards Temari intent of crushing her under his chakra reinforced weight.

Temari knowing her **Fuusajin would not stop that much weight at that velocity jumped skyward and glided away from the rampaging ball of flesh. "Guess I over did it a bit," Temari thought. As she looked down she saw Chouji bounce of the wall and then reverse direction back the way he came. To her shock however Chouji began bouncing as he rolled and was soon bouncing near her level and coming right at her. With quick thinking Temari closed her fan and dropped back to the ground barely avoiding the large boy. "Fuusajin won't be enough to stop," Temari thought. "Looks like I'll have to use Kirikiri (Spiraling Whirl)." Just as she landed Chouji had bounced off the arena wall again and was coming back at her. Quickly opening her fan once again she gave a mighty swing calling out, "Kirikiri!" a focused tornado about a meter wide lashed out towards Chouji's spinning form stopping his motion for a few seconds. It was too bad that Kirikiri was not a continuous attack otherwise it would have stopped Chouji enough to keep him from rolling. It was not however and after those few seconds Chouji continued forward, though his speed was noticeably slower. Temari was once again forced to jump into the air and sail away on her fan in order not to be crushed by Chouji.**

**As Chouji was rolling around he could not help but start to become dizzy. As he did his rolling became more erratic and his path started to zigzag. On up side this helped Chouji as it kept Temari from launching continues wind attacks as it would just knock him away not stop him. On the down side the dizzier Chouji got the more likely he would pass out.**

**Temari was sailing through the air trying to figure out a way to slow Chouji down when a sudden bout of inspiration hit her. "If I could channel his movements into the trees the branches would cause more resistance forcing him to slow down. Problem is I'll have to have a stead surface to brace myself on don't get knocked off balance by my own swings. Now the question is where can I stand and still be able to avoid him but still be braced enough?" She looked around the stadium for a moment when the most obvious answer presented itself, "Of course the wall!" with a bit of directed gliding Temari soon was close enough she dropped to the wall and used her chakra to stick and waited for Chouji to come at her.**

**She did not have to wait long as Chouji bounced and rolled his way to where Temari stood on the wall. As Temari was anticipating this she had more then enough time to call out "Kirikiri" once more sending Chouji off course and into a line of trees and bushes. With a smirk Temari ran along the wall to the point where Chouji would exit and repeated her jutsu. This pattern continued for several minutes until the desired results occurred and Chouji came to a complete stop.**

**With his moment completely lost Chouji's jutsu ran out. Struggling to remain standing because he was so dizzy. Chouji was only dimly aware as Temari approached with her fan folded once again ready to hit him with it like a club. It was also at this point that another common side effect of extreme dizziness occurs, especially when one has eaten not long before, an upset stomach. Temari was not close enough to hear Chouji's stomach rumbling but was close enough to be caught by the aftermath. "BLEEGGGG!" Chouji vomited the hugest pile of through up anyone in the stadium had ever seen all over the poor blonde girl from Suna. **

**"EEWWW!" Temari screamed and not thinking about anything other than wanting to get clean ran from the fighting area to find the closest bathroom.**

**"Well that was unexpected," Genma said. "Due to Sabaku no Temari's departure from the area this match goes to Akimichi Chouji!"**

**Normally the end of a match would have caused the spectators to cheer for winner but this time everyone was just too sick from watching Chouji heave his several bags of chips out of his stomach to do much.**

**"There will be a fifteen minute break while we get the area cleaned up," Genma announced as Chouji staggered off.**

As the Hyuuga's, with Naruto, Tenten and Shino, came into the crowds they saw Gai and Lee coming up the stairs. Lee was still using a crutch because of his injuries he received from his fight with Gaara. "Gai-sensei, Lee" Neji greeted.

"Hello everyone," Gai greeted. "I heard you won your match Neji, great job." He turned to Hinata and Shino, "I heard your match was also impressive Hinata-san, Shino-san."

"It sure was," Naruto said. "Hinata invented a whole new branch Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) and already has its first jutsu."

"It appears we missed Chouji's match," Hinata said with a slight blush to try to take the attention off of her.

"It appears so," Hiashi agreed. "I wonder what we missed."

"Believe me you don't want to know," an Anbu answered. "On the bright side Chouji won though the way he did it was rather unconventional.

"Isn't that good?" Naruto asked. "It means he can surprise the enemy and isn't a shinobi's greatest weapon."

"Normally yes," the Anbu answered. "But this is probably the exception. Look I've got to go on patrol. Good day Hyuuga-sama's."

In the fighting area the last of the clean up finished. Genma was looking at his watch, during the break he was informed that if Sasuke had not arrived by the end of the fifteen minutes he would be disqualified. "He's only got a few minutes left," Genma thought. As the minutes ticked away the crowd became restless. Finally at the end of the fifteen minutes Genma began to speak, "Uchiha Sasuke has been…"

He was cut off by a sudden gust of wind and a swirl of leaves. Once dust and leaves settled everyone saw Uchiha Sasuke and Hatake Kakashi standing next to Genma. "Well we're here," Kakashi said. He turned to Genma asking, "We're not too late are we?"

"No but only just barely," Genma answered. "You'll have to leave now." Kakashi nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke just as Gaara appeared in a swirl of sand. The two took positions and Genma looked at the two before saying "Begin!"

For a few seconds neither shinobi moved. Sasuke was measuring the Gaara's defenses trying to find and exploit any weakness he could see. The problem was Gaara's defenses could not be scene as they were focused around his sand. For Kakashi had told him that Gaara could use his sand as a shield and armor. Gaara meanwhile simply looked on with a barely concealed bloodlust. To him this would not be a fight, but a feeding to sate the insane voice in his head calling out for fresh blood.

Tired of waiting Gaara willed his sand out his gourd. It started to pile around his feet for a few seconds until there was pile several centimeters high. Then with a Ram seal the sand shout to Sasuke like a speak trying to skewer him in the stomach. This failed however as Sasuke revealed a sudden increase in speed and dodged the spear of sand. Gaara momentarily caught off guard but the speed the Uchiha showed channeled more chakra and this time sent three spears at Sasuke.

Sasuke once again dodged the sand but instead of jumping back or to the sides he moved in at surprising speed and threw a strong right cross at Gaara. The sand tried to rise up and block the punch but Sasuke proved to be to fast and connected to Gaara sending him tumbling to the ground. Then with a blur of movement Sasuke disappeared dodging as the sand tried to ensnare his feet. When he reappeared he took a stance that Gaara and several in the audience recognized, the Gouken (Iron Fist) stance waiting for Gaara to move.

As Gaara stood back up Sasuke blurred once more and this time struck Gaara in the stomach landing the blow before blurring out of sight again. Unlike the last time Sasuke did not give Gaara a chance to recover and reappeared to his left landing a fierce round kick to Gaara's face only to blur away once more and this time reappear at Gaara's back and hit Gaara for the third time in a row sending him crashing to the ground several meters away.

Through out the exchange Gaara took noticed that Sasuke's movements were almost exactly like Lee's from the Preliminary matches. With irritation now mixed in with the bloodlust in his eyes Gaara began a series of quick hand seals before he said, "Suna Bushin no Jutsu (Sand Clone)." The sand started to rise and take the form of a yellow Gaara that stood between him and Sasuke.

Watching the fight up in the stands Gai and Lee were surprised to see Sasuke using Gouken. Lee was feeling depressed that Sasuke was now using the style that took him so long to get at the same proficiency that had only a month to practice. Gai unlike his pupil was not depressed or saddened by Sasuke's performance, he was actually quite angry at the moment, but not at Sasuke. Gai was mad at Kakashi, Gouken was a fairly common Taijutsu style in Konoha but it was still his family's style and only he could give permission to teach the style to another person, as he was last of his family. What truly angered Gai about Sasuke using Gouken was that Kakashi taught Sasuke the style without asking first. Leaning in to Kakashi Gai whispered, "You and I going to have a long talk about this after this is over."

Kakashi gave a brief nod to Gai. He knew what would be coming and a part of him did feel guilty about doing this to Gai and Lee but a larger part of him justified the act by saying that to survive a fight with Gaara Sasuke needed the best tools that were available.

At this point the Sakura asked, "Kakashi-sensei, isn't that Lee-san's Taijutsu that Sasuke-kun is using."

Kakashi took a brief glance at Gai and saw the eccentric Jounin was watching waiting to gage his response. "Yeah it is. I helped refine it after Sasuke copied it from Lee."

"That's a load of crap," Naruto said softly.

"What do you mean Naruto?" Hanabi asked her voice also soft, the way she figured it if Naruto did not say it loudly he wanted to keep it a secret for some reason.

"From what I've been told by Shikamaru, Hinata and Neji Sasuke had only seen Lee use Gouken once and it was only a brief exchange," Naruto answered, still speaking softly. "It would be impossible for Sasuke to match Lee's move so precisely after only one encounter."

"If that's true then why doesn't Gai-san say something!?" Hanabi asked raising her voice a little in anger.

"Gai with take care of that matter in private Hanabi," Hiashi answered. "That is their, business not ours."

Hanabi was about to ask why but was silenced by a small shake of Hinata's head, so instead of asking that Hanabi asked another question. "Won't Uchiha still lose? I mean if he's using Lee-san's style and Lee-san still lost."

"Of course not!" Sakura yelled jumping to Sasuke's defense. "There is no way Sasuke-kun could lose."

"Actually Sakura Hanabi-chan is right," Kakashi replied. "But Taijutsu was not all that I taught Sasuke in the past month."

"What else did you teach him?" Lee asked.

"You'll see," Kakashi said with a happily closed eye.

Down in the arena Sasuke had just destroyed the Suna Bushin with a palm heal to its face. He was about to continue his assault when Gaara started to draw the sand around him forming a large sphere wrapping him up like a cocoon. Trying to find a way to penetrate the sphere Sasuke made a few test shots with some kunai and shuriken. To his surprise the kunai and shuriken simply bounced off the shell of sand like it was made of solid rock. "There's no way my punches or kicks will be able to get through that," Sasuke said to himself. "Guess its time to use it." With a smirk of his assured victory Sasuke dashed to side of the arena wall and ran non-stop until he reached the top. From there he did three hand seals and grabbed his wrist as sparks of electricity started to ark in his other hand.

"So that is what you meant," Hizashi said.

"What do you mean Hizashi-sama?" Lee asked.

"Kakashi taught Sasuke his one original jutsu," Gai informed. "It is in essence a rather simple principle, a high velocity thrust that can pierce defenses. The true power of the jutsu comes from the Raiton (Lightning Element) and the speed. The speed makes the jutsu hard to dodge and the Raiton will puncture just about anything." Gai turned to Kakashi directly then added, "That was the real reason to taught Sasuke Gouken, for the speed."

"Then shouldn't have Hatake-san taught Uchiha his own Taijutsu, I mean isn't his fast enough?" Hanabi asked.

Kakashi actually had an answer for this as he knew someone would have asked, "My Taijutsu has the speed necessary but not the strength or endurance. I needed to boost Sasuke's chakra levels enough so he could do the jutsu."

"SO what's the name of the jutsu?" Tenten asked.

"It's called the Chidori because of the sound it makes," Gai answered as Sasuke began running down the wall dragging the Chidori and creating a trench of crumbled earth along the way.

Sasuke was nearing his target and could feel his victory at hand. With his Sharingan activated Sasuke was able to see the spikes of sand thrust out of sphere with just enough time to dodge them. As he rammed his lightning covered fist into sphere he was satisfied to hear and feel it pierce something soft and fleshy, Gaara's skin.

Inside the ball of sand Gaara was shaking with something he had only felt a couple of times in his life, physical pain. "H…He hurt me!" Gaara thought. He could feel something warm and slightly sticky running down his chest and knew what it was as he had felt it a number of times before, the only difference between this time and the others was that the blood was his own. "Th…this is MY BLOOD!!"

Sasuke heard the yell and tried to pull his arm free. He was shocked to find that his arm was stuck and he could not remove it no matter how hard he tried. Getting desperate as he could feel the pressure of the sand increasing Sasuke hurriedly sent a burst of charka into his hand blowing just enough sand away to free himself. To his and everyone's shock, except those from Suna, a long arm with a clawed hand followed him out sphere. "What is that!?" Sasuke shouted to anyone and everyone.

It was too bad for Sasuke that no one would answer him at the time for a more important event was about to occur. The invasion the higher-ranking ninja had been waiting for just started.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

It was hard to describe the scene happening at the Konoha Arena. There was a mix of anarchy and calm, fighting and peach, and alertness and sleep. Just after Gaara blew Sasuke's arm out of his cacoon of sand a wide area effect Genjutsu put most of the audience asleep. All of the civilians and most of the Gennin fell victim and were now sleeping peacefully unaware of the life and death battle taking place over their head. In fact all of Konoha was suffering from a life and death battle. It seemed everywhere a person would look a battle was taking place between a Konoha shinobi and an Oto or Suna shinobi.

Traveling through this mess was a small group of young people making their way the Hokage Monument. The group was easily recognizable even in the chaos of all the fighting, they were the heirs to the Hyuuga Clan and the Kyuubi Vessel. The three moved in a strait line with Naruto in front, Hinata in the middle carrying a sleeping Hanabi, and finally Neji. They traveled in this formation to ensure Hanabi's protection. Naruto being the most rested took the front position because it would most likely be the first to encounter an enemy. Neji took the rear guard because his mastery of the Byakugan would allow him to see anyone sneaking up on them from any angle. Hinata being the most exhausted and slowest was the one to carry Hanabi. She had plenty of strength to carry her little sister but in a guard position she would be a liability in her condition. The three were heading towards the Hokage Monument as that was the evac. point for all civilians that could be moved. After they delivered Hanabi to the guards there they were to help any Konoha shinobi in any way possible.

Halfway to the Hokage Monument the small group encountered their first human obstacle. The man before them was wearing a long cloak, dark mask and a hitai-ate with a musical note displayed. 'Oto-nin (Sound-Nin), attacks based on sound waves and extreme air pressure,' Naruto analyzed calmly. 'From his stance he is at least Chunin level. He appears to be alone but there is no doubt help near by. Going around would take to long and a prolonged battle would only endanger Hanabi. Looks like I'll be showing Neji and Hinata my jutsu.'

Without slowing down Naruto started to form a spinning sphere of chakra in his right hand. At his feet Naruto channeled some chakra as well to reduce his friction and slid forward faster then he was running. At two paces away from the Oto-nin Naruto's Rasengan (Spinning Sphere) finished forming. Oto-nin had just now turned to see Naruto thrust the mass of chakra into his chest right on top of his heart, "Rasengan!" The jutsu connected flawlessly and grinned into the Oto-nin's body destroying his heart and lungs before launching his body into the air and down the street.

When Hinata and Neji caught up to him Hinata asked, "What was that?"

"It's called the Rasengan," Naruto said. "I'll tell you more about it after we get Hanabi somewhere safe."

"Agreed," Neji said. "Others will be here soon we must leave." Neither Hinata nor Naruto argued and they fell back into formation.

The rest of the trip went quickly. They were diverted from their path once by a squad of Suna (Sand) Jounins and took out three more Chunin and a Jounin from Oto with a well-placed set of traps. The Oto-nins had tried to sneak up on the trio but Neji spotted them giving the three conscious members of the group enough time to set up a killing field. The squad of enemy shinobi overestimated themselves and was cut by a combination of explosive notes, a couple of shock tags, and a barrage of kunai and shuriken.

Once they arrived at the Hokage Monument Naruto quickly opened one of the secret entrances into the shelter. One the inside he was greeted by two kunai to his throat revealing that the entrance was guarded. "Hold!" a female voice called out. "It's Uzumaki and Hyuuga Heirs." The two Chunin guarding the entrance removed the kunai from Naruto's throat and allowed the four to enter.

Inside Naruto saw the voice belonged to the Jounin he met over a month ago, Miturashi Anko. "We have just come from the stadium to deliver Hanabi to the evac point here," Naruto started his situation report. "Along the way we ran a total of nine enemy shinobi; four from Suna, five from Oto. First was a lone Oto Chunin that I killed on my own. Next we avoided a squad from Suna. And lastly we were able to kill a squad of Oto-nins with killing field of traps."

"We are under orders that once Hanabi is safe to help out any Konoha shinobi that we can in anyway possible," Neji continued. "Other than a few cuts and scrapes we are uninjured. Hinata-sama however is exhausted from her match with Aburame Shino and the run here. Naruto and myself are approximately eighty percent combat capable with sufficient supply of weapons."

"Good job on taking out the Oto-nins," Anko replied. "As things stand we are preparing to counter attack. Hinata will stay here and help guard the civilians. Neji and Naruto, you two will head off into the forest to assist Uchiha Sasuke, Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura and Nara Shikamaru. The four are pursuit of the Gennin Team from the Chunin Exam."

"Yes Ma'am!" Hinata, Neji and Naruto saluted.

"Use the back exit," Anko ordered. "That will put you in the same general location as the others." Neji and Naruto nodded in understanding. Just before the ran down the corridor Anko spoke once more, "Be careful of the one with gourd, we believe he is like you Uzumaki." Naruto only paused for a brief moment before dashing down way, Neji right behind him.

When they were out of earshot of others Neji asked, "What did she mean 'like you'?"

"She means that Subako no Gaara may just be a Vessel for a Bijuu," Naruto answered.

"The Seal on your stomach," Neji concluded Naruto simply nodded. "Which Bijuu would be sealed into Gaara?"

"Most likely Shukaku considering how he uses sand in his jutsu. Hokage-sama's library included information from the Shodai (First) Hokage and his notes mentioned the Bijuu and their known abilities."

"What other information did the notes say?" Neji asked.

"The notes said that Shukaku drives whatever host it is sealed into insane," Naruto replied. By now they had left the tunnel complex in the Hokage Monument and were running through the forest. "It accomplishes this threw sleep deprivation. If the host falls asleep Shukaku comes into its full power. Knocking him out does not count as falling asleep."

"How do we get past his defenses?" Neji asked. "The strategy Outosan (Father) and I came up with will not work from his display when he fought Uchiha."

"A full blast from my Shock Tags should be able neutralize his sand for long enough for me to hit him with my Rasengan," Naruto answered. "Which way?"

Neji activated his Byakugan and search the forest, "Northeast, I can see tracks that are made by the distinct shinobi sandals from Suna." The pair changed direction and quickly headed for the northeast. "Also, what is this Rasengan?"

"A-rank Ninjutsu invented by the Yondaime," Naruto answered. "Learned it from Jiraiya of the Sannin a month ago."

Five kilometers away Uchiha Sasuke was facing the toughest fight he had in his short shinobi career. He was facing Subaku no Gaara and if he was completely honest with himself doing rather poorly. This frustrated Sasuke to no end. For the past month he had trained like a man possessed to close the gap between himself and the others in the Chunin Exam.

At the Exam he had encountered several people that were simply out of his league. First there was Rock Lee, a boy that move so fast that even with the Sharingan Sasuke was completely beaten. Second there was Hyuuga Neji, Kakashi had described the boy's fight in the Prelims and even Sasuke had to be impressed by the skill and precision the other prodigy displayed. The fact that Neji was holding back only added to his threat level. Next was Hyuuga Hinata, she was third in terms of grades in the class but second in practical applications. In the Prelims she should great improvement and was stronger then Kiba who fought Sasuke on pretty even ground. And then there was Subaku no Gaara, someone who, if it were not for the intervention of Maito Gai, would have killed Rock Lee in the Prelims.

With the combination of Gouken (Iron Fist), Sharingan training and Kakashi's Chidori (One Thousand Birds) Sasuke thought he had matched and surpassed the other Gennin. The beginning of his match against Gaara seemed to confirm this belief. At least that was the case until Gaara had wrapped himself into that cocoon. The Chidori had pierced the cocoon but then Gaara almost tore his off after that.

Now Sasuke was facing Gaara alone and was having even more trouble then before. Everything Sasuke threw at had little to no effect and Gaara was continuing to get stronger.

'I have no choice I have to use the Chidori again,' Sasuke thought. Sasuke performed the handseals required and his chakra formed in his hand and started to arch like lighting. By now Gaara had covered his left torso and arm as well as sporting a tail from the bottom of the gourd. The two stared at each other for a moment before charging. When the two collided both were blown back. Gaara because of Chidori blowing a chuck of his sand arm off and Sasuke because Gaara's sand tail had swung around, batting him into a large tree.

After shaking his head clear Sasuke saw Gaara's state. He was shocked and more then a bit frightened to see Gaara had now covered his entire torso with sand, another arm had formed and his head had taken the form of some kind of beast.

"Yes, Okasan will enjoy your blood!" Gaara yelled as he charged Sasuke once again.

Sasuke, with his Sharingan activated, was able to see Gaara's path. It was too bad that Gaara's transformation not only increased his strength and endurance but also his speed as well. The result was Sasuke getting hit by the full power of Gaara's arm sending him crashing through several branches. When he finally stopped Sasuke looked up just to see Gaara about to swipe at him again, only to be knocked aside by a blast of chakra. The next thing Sasuke knew he was pulled off the branch and was sailing through the air. When he regained enough of his senses to understand he was being carried Sasuke realized he was now more then a hundred meters away from Gaara and his line of sight.

"Uchiha, where are the others?" the voice of the person who carried him away asked.

"Shikamaru took off with the puppet user, haven't seen them since the fight started," Sasuke answered. He now realized the person who pulled him away was Uzumaki Naruto. "Sakura was knocked unconscious by the kunoichi with the fan. After Gaara woke up she took off. She looked more scared on him then me." At this point Hyuuga Neji landed on the branch.

'Not surprising,' Naruto thought. "Neji how is Gaara doing?"

"His chakra is blinding," Neji answered. His Byakugan was activated and he was looking in Gaara's direction. He then fixed his gaze to Sasuke. "Uchiha you are severely weakened you should pull back and let us handle this."

"I don't need you're help!" Sasuke snapped.

"You three cracked ribs, your chakra is dangerously low and you're legs are shaking from fatigue," Neji replied. "You can barely stand let alone face some him." Neji gestured in Gaara's direction. Who by now seemed to be randomly attacking the forest around him like an enraged beast.

Sasuke wanted to argue but he knew Neji was correct. He could just barely stand but he would never give Neji the satisfaction of admitting it out loud.

"We don't have time for this," Naruto said. "We need to stop Gaara now!" Naruto then reached into his hip pouch and pulled out nearly a dozen yellow slips of paper that looked similar to Explosive Notes. "Remember the plan. You put the Tags on Gaara and I'll activate as soon as you are clear, then I'll finish him off.

"Right," Neji answered. "Come lets go"

The two split off from Sasuke, Neji approached Gaara directly behind him while Naruto circle wide. He needed to place as many Shock Tags as possible onto Gaara quickly and on different parts of his body for maximum effect. Neji only had ten left as he had used ten of them in the trap earlier. From the bundle Neji placed a tag at the base of Gaara's tail then another in the middle of his back. By now Gaara was aware Neji's presence and tried to strike at him with his tail. Neji twisted away from the tail and placed another tag on Gaara's left arm. Gaara was able to backhand Neji with his left arm this time and sent Neji sliding along the branch. Garra tried to follow up with his right hand but Neji used a bit of Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) to knock Gaara's hand away. Because the sand absorbed the blow the damage was minimal but some sand was blown away. It did also allow Neji to place another tag, this time on Gaara's right arm. To distract Gaara away from the Tags Neji went on the offensive.

Neji attacked Gaara with a spin kick to the left arm, avoiding the Shock Tag, knocking a chunk of sand away. During his spin kick Neji placed another Tag on Gaara, this time on his shoulder. Gaara did not notice this as he was distracted by the fact that yet another person was able to get past his defense. Not wanting to give Neji time to follow up Gaara reformed the damaged spot. While he did this Neji attacked from the other side repeating the process. This time Gaara stopped the kick by softening the sand getting Neji's foot stuck. Neji stomped his other foot into the sand sending out a burst of chakra just as he touched Gaara freeing his first foot. Just before he jumped away another Tag was placed on Gaara's right shoulder. 'Four more,' Neji thought. Dodging a swipe from Gaara's tail, as the tail already had a Tag he simply jumped away. Naruto was able to dodge Gaara so much because he became extremely good at it after sparring with Lee, Naruto and Tenten so much.

At this point Gaara was extremely frustrated as Neji was avoiding his strikes and landing blows that did as much damage to his sand as Lee or Sasuke. He felt it was only a matter of time before Neji broke through enough of his sand to actually hurt him. Gaara's anger rose at this causing more sand from the ground below to shoot up towards him and his attacks become more erratic . Neji seeing this redouble his attacks knowing that if fight carried on any longer they would all be in serious trouble.

From his vantage point Sasuke saw the battle between Neji and Gaara. He saw Neji was faring better then him, landing more blows that blew sand away from Gaara. The amount was no where near as much as Chidori but that fact that Neji could keep going meant he could eventually knock off enough to land a critical blow. His frustration and anger grew enough to bypass Kakashi's Seal and activate the Curse Seal. Up until then Sasuke was feeling to exhausted to move. Now he was invigorated by the power and mental warping power of the Curse Seal. Performing handseals Sasuke charged his Chidori feeling it was more powerful then before dashing towards the fight to claim the victory.

Naruto who had been watching the fight between Neji and Gaara, waiting for the right time to activate all the Shock Tags, saw Sasuke first. 'What the hell!?' Naruto thought, 'I thought he was too weak to even move let alone use the Chidori!' Seeing that Neji was right in Sasuke's path Naruto yelled out a warning, "NEJI! BEHIND YOU!"

Neji heard Naruto's warning and shifted his gaze behind him for a moment with his Byakyugan. He saw Sasuke charging him and Gaara with the Chidori. Idly Neji thought, 'That's the same chakra he used in the Forest of Death,' as he jumped away.

Seeing Neji jump clear and knowing that the Chidori could do a lot of damage Naruto decided to activate the Shock Tags now. If the time was right he could weaken the sand and Sasuke could finish Gaara. The Shock Tags sent off huge amounts of electricity thought Gaara's sand and it indeed blew huge amounts of it away. Unfortunately Naruto underestimated his timing and activated the tags too soon. Instead of Sasuke piercing Gaara's weakened body, he missed as Gaara fell off the branch momentarily stunned by the electricity.

'I missed!' Sasuke thought as his hand rammed into the tree, blowing it apart. Even with the Curse Seal and his Sharingan Sasuke did not have the reaction time to adjust his course and hit Gaara. 'IF only my Sharingan was complete I would have hit him!'

As Gaara fell he saw Neji staring down at him. The look on Neji's face enraged the Suna boy to the point of reforming all the disrupted sand and then fully transforming into his giant demon tanuki (raccoon dog) form. "I'LL GET YOU FOR HURTING ME!" Gaara screamed.

With a primal scream of rage Gaara sent his arm crashing down onto Neji. Neji used his Kaiten (Heavenly Spin) to try and block the blow but the shear mass of the arm easily broke through the Hyuuga defense sending Neji crashing into ground dozens of meters below.

"NEJI!" Naruto yelled. He had been starting the Rasengan after he saw Sasuke fail to land a finishing blow. Midway through the formation process Neji had been slammed into the ground. Seeing someone he considered family hurt like that enraged Naruto to the point of drawing out his own demon's chakra. The Rasengan that formed was a burning red instead of light blue. Wanting revenge for what Gaara did, Naruto ran towards the giant tanuki and up his body. Figuring Gaara was somewhere in the head Naruto slammed the Rasengan up through the tanuki's neck blowing sand several meters into the air.

Inside the tanuki's head Gaara was absolutely shocked when he felt something slam into his back, burning him and then launching out of the tanuki's forehead and into the air. Without Gaara's will to hold the sand together it crumbled around Naruto making him fall to the ground. Naruto still pumped up with Kyuubi's chakra charge after Gaara as soon as he hit the ground.

Gaara for his part was struggling to stand. What ever hit him had been the most painful event he ever experienced. If the power had not been diminished by it drilling through the sand earlier Gaara had no doubt he would be dead right now. With the thought of his death Gaara became truly afraid for the first time in his life. Using ever once of control he had Gaara tried desperately to call as much sand to him as possible in order to be protected.

When Naruto finally caught to Gaara he saw Gaara had reformed his Suna no Yoroi (Armor of Sand). This did not deter him and Naruto charged Gaara reeling his arm back Naruto punched Gaara using Impact combined with Kyuubi's chakra. The result was Gaara's Suna no Yoroi shattering and Gaara once again become airborne and flying back several dozen meters.

Because Gaara had his Suna no Yoroi up he was still conscious if only barely. He saw his attacker stalking towards him like some kind of predator. The catlike blood red eyes fangs and claws on his hands only added to the image. "W…what a…are…you?" Gaara asked fearfully.

"A lot like you actually," Naruto answered. "I also bear the burden of a demon and everything that comes with it." Gaara was shocked at this. When Naruto was close enough Naruto prepared to finish him when a tornado blew him away. Flipping in mid air and landing in a crouch Naruto saw what or rather who blew him away. It was a girl with blond hair tied in four pigtails holding a battle fan shaking in fear at Naruto. "Do you want to die?"

"N…no," Temari answered honestly. She witnessed the entire battle and to be honest the boy in front of her frightened her more then anything else in her life. She had seen him crush Gaara just seconds earlier a feet she could never have imagined even a few minutes ago. "Bu…but I…I won't…let k…kill him."

"Why?" Naruto demanded.

"He…he's family," Temari answered.

Naruto froze at that. He wanted to kill Gaara for hurting Neji, a member of his family. On the other hand he could respect and even sympathize with the kunoichi, after all he would do anything to protect his family as well. The decision was taken out of Naruto's hands as a cloud of red smoke rose from the North, the universal signal for shinobi to retreat. As it came from outside of Konoha it was clear that the enemy, Suna or Oto, had called for the retreat.

Naruto lost his demonic look at this point deciding to let go of his anger. The battle was over so Neji was safe. "I'll let you both go this time, but if you ever threaten my family again. I'll kill you." Temari just nodded and picked Gaara up and went off to find Kankuro and head back to Suna. Naruto after Temari left rushed off to Neji and anyone else who might be injured and take them back to Konoha.


	16. Chapter 16

It was the saddest day in Naruto's young life

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

It was the saddest day in Naruto's young life. The Sandaime Hokage, the man he admired most in the world was dead. For as long as Naruto could remember he could count on the old warrior to lend him a comforting shoulder, some sound advice about being a shinobi or life in general, or just someone to sit and enjoy a bowl of ramen when no one else was around. For twelve years Naruto counted on the Hokage to be there for him, even when Naruto was an outcast in the Hyuuga Clan Sarutobi was there for him. Now he was gone and Naruto, as well as many others, were feeling lost, numb and uncertain about the future.

Standing outside the Hyuuga Compound along with Naruto was the entire Hyuuga Clan, from the Elders to babies. They were waiting for the funeral procession to make it down the street. From there it would be lead through main section of Village and finally to the Hokage Tombs were the other three Hokage were buried. Once the body was interned they would make their way to the Memorial Stone where Sarutobi name would be carved along with all the other deceased ninja.

Hear the distinct sound of marching footsteps the entire Hyuuga Clan turned to their right to see the approaching procession. In front carrying the casket were the Sandaime's old teammates, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu; his children Sarutobi Asuma and Shion; the old Monk Chiriku; and to Naruto's mild surprise the Fire Daimyo himself. After the casket passed their location Naruto left the Hyuuga Clan and joined up with the rest of the Sarutobi Clan. This was one of the Sandaime's requests in his will, that Naruto be seen as a member of his family in every way that truly mattered.

After Naruto joined the Sarutobi Clan, walking beside Konohamaru, the Hyuuga Clan joined the rest of the Clans of the Village, right behind the Fire Daimyo's family. After the Clans came the rest of the shinobi force. After them the citizens of Konoha followed. Finally, came the representatives of many villages and towns from across Fire Country. In all over fifty thousand individual people came to pay their respects to man known through out the world as the Professor and the God of Shinobi.

During the interment ceremony Konohamaru finally started to cry. Until then his face was blank from shock that his beloved grandfather had passed away. Now there were virtual waterfalls flowing down his face. His tears acted as a catalyst and soon there was not a single dry eye among the mourners. Even the normally unflappable and battle hardened shinobi like the Hyuuga Clan, Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke were seen whipping the tears from their eyes. Naruto had the dual burden of trying to comfort Konohamaru and deal with his own pain; the only solace he had at the moment was that he knew his Ojisan (Grandfather) was proud of him.

Hours later in the Sarutobi Home there was a private meeting so the Sandaime's personal belongings could be distributed. In attendance were the Sarutobi Clan, Naruto, Jiraiya and a handful of others. It was late in the evening and by now all the tears had been shed. Now was the time to hear the personal messages the Sandaime wrote to those he cared for most.

"Otosan left us each a personal letter as well as his will," Asuma said. He was the newly instated head of the Sarutobi Clan as such it was his duty to fulfill his father's last wishes. Clearing his throat Asuma began to read, "To my family friends and students I leave the following items. To Asuma I leave my Summoning Scroll, I hope the Saru (Monkeys) serve you as well as they did me. I also hope that when he is ready that Konohamaru will be allowed to sign the Scroll as well. To Shion I leave my personal calligraphy set; you always were better at calligraphy than I. To Konohamaru I leave my first staff; I hope you learn to love it as I had. To my student Jiraiya I leave my collection 'meditation' scrolls," Asuma actually made the gesture for the quotation marks from the scroll gaining a slight laugh from those there. "To my student Tsunade I leave you my luck monkey paw; I hope it gives you the luck you always seem to lack in gambling. To my Teammates Koharu and Homura I leave my pictures of our teacher and us together as a way of remembering where we all came from. And finally to Naruto, I leave my personal library of jutsu…" Asuma trailed off. Everyone in the room was shocked silent. The jutsu library of the Professor filled almost have of the Konoha armory section devoted to ninjutsu. For ten minutes the only thing anyone could do was stare at Asuma or Naruto. Finally the silence ended when Asuma finished the will, "My personal library of jutsu, provided that you give Konohamaru the same opportunity that I gave you. As I know you better than just about anyone I am confident my life's work is in good hands. Good bye to you all and I hope not to see any of you too soon."

After Asuma finished silence descended into the room once again. After a few moments Asuma reached for a small stack of scrolls with different names on them. These were the personal messages the Sandaime left for each person. The people of the room would take the scrolls and started to leave. The messages were private and each person wanted to be alone.

Naruto made his way to the Hokage Mountain, more specifically the Sandaime's likeness. When he reached it he sat down and remained completely still just staring off into space. After a time Naruto broke the seal on the scroll and unrolled it displaying Sarutobi's personal message to Naruto:

"Dear Naruto,

By the time you reading this you should know what I left you. I have tried to explain why I left you my life's work. I have many regrets in my life; not stopping Orochimaru all those years ago when I had the chance; not taking the Yondaime's place when he sealed the Kyuubi into you and finally my greatest regret; allowing the Hyuuga Clan to mark you with their Curse Seal. It is because of that you live under a constant death threat and ruined you chances to reach your full potential. With that Seal on your fore head you cannot use Elemental Chakra because it was placed on you long before anyone else and before the Seal trapping the Kyuubi fully settled. I do not know the full architecture of the Caged Bird Seal but I do know it is an odd number Seal; with the even number Seal containing the Kyuubi this has resulted in your charka coils from being damaged in such a way that you will never have an elemental affinity. But I have digressed from my original topic.

Back to why I left you my library. It is to give you the best advantage I can by allowing you to know how many of the jutsu are performed. This will allow you to devise a counter strategy for nearly all enemies you encounter. This cannot make up for what I allowed to be taken from you but I hope my knowledge aides you in your quest to protect you precious people.

And speaking of precious people, I ask you to look out for my most precious person on all, Konohamaru. He looks up to you like an older brother and actually listens to you, as hard as that is to believe. And when he's ready teach him everything you have learned from me and anyone else. He wished to be Hokage and I know with you acting as his guide he will achieve that goal.

Now on to other matters. Specifically something you have wanted to know all your life, the identity for you parents. Your Okasan (Mother) was a kunoichi from Whirlpool Country named Uzumaki Kushina. She had red hair and was a tomboy as a child but she grew up to be one of the finest women I have ever met. She was full of life and had a temper on a very short fuse. She was fiercely protected of everyone she loved and would have been of you. When she was pregnant with you she would always go one about the kind of child you'd be. She had many fantasies of how you would turn out but she would always say that no matter how you turned out she would love you. Your Otosan was a native of Konoha and to be honest the best man I have ever known. This was why I named him as my successor. Yes Naruto, you are the son of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. He was a genius of the highest caliber and truest friend anyone could have. He was patient with the most frustrating people and easy to laugh with when he told a joke. Before he died he told me the greatest accomplishment of his life was seeing you born and his only real regret was he would never see you grow up.

I wanted to tell you all this in person but I am afraid that is impossible. For as I write this letter I know Orochimaru is planning my death. I have no illusion that I can defeat him. I am just too old. So I can only tell threw this letter.

The reason I waited so long was because it was your father's wish that you be at least a Chunin to know of your heritage so that you may defend yourself. Your father had many enemies would strike at him through you if anyone but his most trusted friends knew. As you do not have a ninja rank this last request was hard to fulfill, but when Jiriaya told me you completed the Rasengan I knew it was time.

I hope you live a very long life and one day find a nice girl to marry and have lots of children with.

Love,

Sarutobi Sasuke, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, Fire Country."

Naruto put the letter down and slowly turned his head to left to look down at the Yondaime's head. His mind was split into three different ways. One was denial, he could not believe what he just read, that he was the son of the Yondaime Hokage. It was so hard to believe that he was related to a person that was a near myth to his generation. In a way it was like being told you were related to a god, it was a bit overwhelming. Second was actually acceptance. Naruto had seen the picture of the Yondaime in the Hokage's office dozens of times and he could see the similarities between the two. They had the same eyes, hair and general facial features. And finally Naruto's mind was thinking on his new responsibility. He was essentially in charge of the Sandaime's legacy, a huge burden for anyone to bear much less a twelve year old. Added to the fact that the recently buried Hokage expected him to pass all that on to Konohamaru only added to the weight.

"The world just seems to pile stuff on to me, doesn't it?" Naruto asked looking down at the Sandaime's likeness. "First the Kyuubi, then protecting Hinata-sama when we were kinds, and now this. But why did you put this on me?"

"Because he trusted and cared about you as if you were his own," a deep voice answered. Naruto turned around to see Hizashi and Hinata only a few paces away from. Their faces showed worry; Hinata's was so blatant that anyone could have seen it, Hizaishi not so much. Naruto could only see it because he had known the man for all his life. Slowly they walked up to Naruto now that they had his attention. The two came to find Naruto after they heard the will reading of the Sandaime was finished. They were the closest to Naruto of the Hyuuga Clan, Hinata because she spent the most time with him and Hizashi because he was Naruto's guardian for many years. "Jiraiya-sama came by and told us what Hokage-sama left you. It is a tremendous responsibility and I am sure you will handle it." When he was close enough the Head of the Branch House knelt down slight and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "You are one of the strongest young men I have ever seen and I know you will succeed. And don't forget if you ever need any help we are all here for you." Hinata took Naruto's hand nodded her agreement.

Naruto squeezed Hinata's hand back and nodded his acceptance to the offer, "Thank you. That actually helps a lot. But it's not the only thing bothering me."

"What else is bothering you Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

Naruto did not answer immediately. Instead he looked Hizashi in the eye and asked, "Did you know who my parents were?"

Naruto asked this question a lot when he was younger. Every time he did the adult he asked would subtly change the subject and Naruto would let the issue drop. He honestly wanted to know when he was a child but was also afraid the reason the adults changed the subject was because his parents did something horrendous. Naruto later concluded this was the case and never brought it up again. He did not want his fear confirmed if he did not know the truth he could always hope his parents were heroes or something similar. Now Naruto knew the truth. His father was a hero, the second greatest hero Konoha had (the first being the Sandaime in Naruto's mind).

Hizashi saw that Naruto already knew the answer to his question. This was a test of trust that was cracked by whatever the Hokage wrote in his personal message to Naruto. It was time for a confession, "Yes I know your parents were Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato." Hinata gasped at the second name. Her face looked like it had an epiphany as she quickly compared Naruto to the images of the Yondaime Hokage she'd seen. Subconsciously she moved closer to Naruto to offer whatever silent confront she could. "We kept your parentage a secret from you once Sandaime-sama told us of Yondaime-sama's last wish. Only Hiashi. Myself, and our wives knew the whole truth. We suspect some of the Elders might have suspected when you started to grow up but we doubt they know for sure. For if they did they would have tried to turn you into a weapon instead of trying to impede your growth."

"When were you planning on telling me?" Naruto asked.

"When you turned fourteen," Hizashi answered honestly. "After you were denied the chance to become a shinobi we figured that by them you would have been able to understand completely by that age."

Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded accepting his answer. "Lets go home," Naruto finally said as he let the days fatigue into his voice and posture. "I'm tired and I know we'll have a lot to do tomorrow." The Hyuuga duo nodded and walked off with Naruto down the stairway and back to the village. Just before he left the top of the mountain Hizashi glanced behind and nodded to man standing in the shadows. The man stepped out revealing himself to be Jiraiya who nodded back. Naruto was right they all had a lot to do tomorrow and the weeks to come.

Author's Note: I know its been a while since I updated this story and this chapter is a little short. I wanted to devote a chapter to Naruto's feelings on the Sandaime's death. I felt the manga glossed over that entirely too much. I hope I portrayed Naruto's feelings in a believeable manner.


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